Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
It's apparently common to have trouble accessing Hotmail. Unfortunately, there is no clear reason why or even a clear direction to take.
Why can't I access Hotmail?
•
As I write this, I'm receiving many reports of people having problems accessing Hotmail. The typical problem is simply "page not found".
This happens occasionally when Windows Live Hotmail's servers go down, or there's a network or other issue preventing a large number of internet users from being able to reach the Hotmail servers.
There could be many, many different reasons for this to happen, and almost all of them are out of your control.
•
To be clear: I don't have an answer. But I at least want people to know that they're not alone. Not everyone is having trouble, but many people are.
I don't know of any way to access your mail or contacts until it's fixed.
The best thing that you can do is simply wait until the problem resolves itself (it usually does), or visit the Windows Live Help Solutions Center and look in the support forums there for updated information.
Unfortunately, as I've outlined in How do I contact Windows Live Hotmail customer service? there is no phone number, no email address, and no direct contact for Hotmail support. The Windows Live Help Solutions Center appears to be the only resource.
At times like this, you might reconsider whether a free email service is worth the risk.
(This is an update to an article originally published September 19, 2004.)
Article C2191 - September 9, 2011 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
April 6, 2005 10:35 PM
same problem with hotmail-suddenly 'page not found' happened at login with ALL computers in the house for 2 weeks - could access from other places. Tried ALL the suggestions here (empty cache, foxfire, etc) nothing worked. Then, unplugged router and connected directly through cable modem. Problem solved immediately. Reconnected router, did a cycle reboot (unplug modem, unplug router, turn off computer - plug in router, plug in modem, turn on computer) - Immediate connection for hotmail. Worth a try...
April 15, 2005 7:34 PM
I did have this problem today and it was fixed by rebooting my modem, wireless router and pc. It was fixed immediately. I had tried everything with my cookies, settings, firewall, spyware, hijack this, even called my dsl provider.
If you are having access problems and have dsl, it sure wouldn't hurt to try to reboot your service. Good luck all. I really do need to move ahead with dumping hotmail and ie!!!
April 17, 2005 10:39 AM
Leo,
as many other I am getting crazy with this access to MSN & hotmail that do not link.
BUT: at this link http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7809-0.html?forumID=75&threadID=17511&messageID=649458
answer:
rufojp | 08/27/04 5:03 PM
I found that may be a MTU settings problem.
I run win 2000 and trayed to fix it going to LAN - properties - configure - advanced - fragmentation threshold
setting it to 1280, 512 but there has been no results.
from other sites I understood that for w2k I should use the registry editor.
This is far beyond my competencies.
I wrote this because probably the point is right but the MTU has to be setted in a different way.
any suggestion?
ciao
Flavio
April 18, 2005 8:42 AM
I thought there might be help, but the comments of others at this site convinced me that there probably is none. I was fortunate enough to get my addresses transferred from my hotmail account to my netzero account before hotmail became completely inaccessible. I e-mailed everybody on my list to notify them of the change, but that does nothing for the others who have my old address but who are not on my list.
I am able to enter my user name and password and get to the screen that tells me I have mail from my "contactos" ("contacts" in English). But when I try to open the "correo" tab ("mail" tab in English) or try to open one of the messages from the list "De mis contactos" ("From my contacts" in English), the site just clocks for hours and never opens anything.
I wish someone from hotmail would read these comments or offer some way to report such problems. But failing that, I am forced to just give up on hotmail.
Hope someone can get this fixed. Hotmail worked fine for me until my niece came and MSN Messenger. Don't know if that caused the problems or if it was just a coincidence that hotmail started crashing after MSN Messenger was added.
---Larry
April 18, 2005 9:45 PM
18-Apr-2005