MSN Ends Hotmail's Free Outlook Access

KingFishKingFish
edited October 2004 in Science & Tech
Citing a rise in spam abuse, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN division has ended free access to its Hotmail Web-based e-mail service through the Outlook and Outlook Express clients.
MSN had offered its 187 million active Hotmail users the ability to read and send e-mail through the e-mail clients rather than a Web interface using a protocol called Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, or WebDAV. But as of Monday, news users wanting to make use of WebDAV will have to pay for the service, said Brooke Richardson, product manager for MSN's communications services. MSN plans to transition current WebDAV users to subscription plans in the next few months as well. "We really wanted to try and keep it available to customers for free," Richardson said. "[But] in the last few months we were seeing spammers going more and more after this particular protocol."
Source: eWeek

Comments

  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited September 2004
    Monday when? Today? Cuz I just got my Hotmail email, worked fine, but maybe they're planning on doing it later tonight...
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited September 2004
    KingFish wrote:
    Citing a rise in spam abuse, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN division has ended free access to its Hotmail Web-based e-mail service through the Outlook and Outlook Express clients.


    Source: eWeek

    ........ so lame.
  • Lord_NightLord_Night Piqua Ohio
    edited September 2004
    so If I pay for this (which I dont and dont need), what kinds of extra new stuff do I get.
    I mean I am paying for a service I should get better service..

    (ok ok stop laughing I know this is Microsoft)
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited September 2004
    Do they think that spammers won't be paying for outlook/outlook express accounts since they make so much money from spamming? It may disuade some but won't stop it.
  • BLuKnightBLuKnight Lehi, UT Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    You know, they promised 250 MB of space months ago, and I still haven't seen it. Perhaps it's going to take them a while to do this. Either way, I'm fed up with Hotmail. If they yank access so I can use Outlook with it, I'm pulling it's plug. I'll use yahoo instead. If I install a third party plugin, I get the same effect.
  • BLuKnightBLuKnight Lehi, UT Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Update

    I just wrote Hotmail telling them what I thought of their new policy. If you don't want to just piss in the wind, I'd recommend you tell Hotmail the follie of their ways. But, if you don't really care one way or the other, that's cool as well.
  • BLuKnightBLuKnight Lehi, UT Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    What do you know... I got a response:
    Regarding your issue on Outlook Express, I would like to inform you that, MSN no longer supports the ability to download Hotmail to a Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express inbox for only newly set up accounts. This change in an effort to help protect you from junk e-mail.. (Note: If you have a free Hotmail account and you have already set up Hotmail to download to Outlook or Outlook Express, you can continue to use this feature.) Junk e-mail distributors (spammers) have been known to exploit MSN Hotmail accounts through Outlook and Outlook Express to send unwanted messages to MSN Hotmail customers and others in the e-mail community. By making this feature available only as part of a subscription service, we can more effectively help protect customers. Requiring customers to provide billing information helps us to limit the amount of unsolicited e-mail that MSN members and others receive. If you currently have a free-Hotmail account and you want to configure Hotmail to download to Outlook or Outlook Express, you can upgrade to MSN Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium. Both of these paid subscription services support this feature. For more information about upgrading from a free MSN Hotmail account to an MSN Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium subscription to enjoy this feature and more, visit http://join.msn.com

    So, it looks like the no access to Outlook and Outlook Express is only an issue for new accounts, not old ones. That sounds better, but there has to be a better way.
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