Microsoft's Hotmail is not your friend

[dobopoq]

I just tried logging in to my hotmail account and found that all my messages had been deleted. I used search engines to find out about this problem and found this page: http://www.tomrafteryit.net/microsoft-hotmail-you-suck/
which describes the same thing that happened to me. My first account was with hotmail, but then I got a yahoo account and started using it more because of more storage, so I stopped using the hotmail as frequently. Now I come to find that Microsoft deletes all accounts that haven't been logged into w/in 30 days. Plus the account size is now down to 2MB from 250MB. I believe Yahoo's policy is to delete accounts without a login after 4 months.

I just thought people should be aware of this. Anybody else had this happen to them?

[Michele Zone]

Oh, good. Now I can feel secure that my hotmail account is finally dead and gone. (it must be more than a year since I logged in)

I also recently got free (free, free at last!) of my yahoo webhosting account. It only took a couple months, numerous lengthy phone calls in which I was frequently told that they could not "verify" that I had an account...yadda yadda. Meanwhile, they did not hesitate to keep debiting my checking account.

[Hceux]

Ya, hotmail does that. I had that happened to me once. But, if you want to "re-start" your old hotmail address, then you can do that.

Does anyone know of this kind of policy with gmail?

[kjel]

Well if you are interested in a GMail account let me know....I have a zillion invites.

[dobopoq]

Well if you are interested in a GMail account let me know....I have a zillion invites.

Are there any advantages to Gmail over yahoo?

[AubieTurtle]

Strange... I still get 250megs on Hotmail.

[natski]

Strange... I still get 250megs on Hotmail.

yeah same here.
I have a hotmail and gmail account- i rather use my gmail but, easier to use, includes a chat and the spam filter is very good.

[dobopoq]

Strange... I still get 250megs on Hotmail.

It let me keep the same address and password, so I could still receive mail, but with only 100th the space - under the assumption that I might no longer exist and thus they didn't want me using up space on their servers. As long as you never fail to login at least once per month, then yes, they do give 250MB.

[imaplanner]

Microsoft's hotmail is my friend.

I always make sure to log in once a month at least and I get 250 mb of storage and it's free!

[Dan]

Are there any advantages to Gmail over yahoo?

1) More than two gigs of storage.
2) Outstanding spam filtering.
3) Can use a regular email client, and use POP to connect to the account.
4) Cyburbia doesn't allow registration from yahoo.com accounts for many reasons; bounces, spammers, disappearing accounts, and so on.

What sucks about Gmail? You really can't make your own folder hierarchy, unless you're using an email client and connecting to the Google server. The Web-based interface it automatically sorts messages into threads.

Another option is Walla (http://mail.walla.com), which offers a 3 gig mailbox. However, it's not Firefox friendly. It's based in Israel, and your mail may be blocked to addresses with aggressive spam filtering; Israeli satellite companies provide service to Nigerian cybercafes, and the country is the source of a lot of eBay fraud..

[kjel]

1) More than two gigs of storage.
2) Outstanding spam filtering.
3) Can use a regulat email client, and use POP to connect to the account.
4) Cyburbia doesn't allow registration from yahoo.com accounts for many reasons; bounces, spammers, disappearing accounts, and so on.

What sucks about Gmail? You really can't make your own folder hierarchy, unless you're using an email client and connecting to the Google server. The Web-based interface it automatically sorts messages into threads.

Another option is Walla (http://mail.walla.com), which offers a 3 gig mailbox. However, it's not Firefox friendly. It's based in Israel, and your mail may be blocked to addresses with aggressive spam filtering; Israeli satellite companies provide service to Nigerian cybercafes, and it's the source of a lot of eBay fraud..

Thank you Dan! Offer still stands if anyone wants a Gmail invite. I have 99 to spare

[SkeLeton]

Hotmail? as an e-mail? I haven't used it like that for years now... I only use it for Messenger....

I've never been a fan of Microsoft...I only use Windows because it's convenient.. (for certain apps that don't work well in Linux and because ATI has crappy drivers for Linux... )

[chukky]

I use my Gmail as an 'archive' .. because I run three, (gmail, hotmail, uni) and hotmail is the only one I've not managed to get to bounce my mail around, I generally check all my mail there and let copies exist in Gmail.