Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support Blog

Not getting all of your mail?

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:43:01 GMT

Each week we receive calls from users who report not receiving e-mail from people. Often this is a very simple change of settings, other times you will need your e-mail provider’s help.

Here are some things you can do to resolve this problem for our top two reasons of not being able to receive e-mail.

1. “My friends say they emailed me, but I just never got it. They didn’t get any error messages either.”

The most common cause of not receiving mail from your friends or family is filter settings. Windows Live Hotmail offers several methods for users to set receiving rules for their inbox.

· Check your junk e-mail filter and blocked sender list

· Set the junk e-mail filtering level

· Block or allow messages from specific senders and domains

· Filter incoming messages

2. “My friends are saying that they get an error message saying permanent failure when they send to me.”

Occasionally, when an email service provider sets up new servers, our network doesn’t yet know them. The addresses of the servers are as unknown to our network as one that would be created by a spam robot. Brand new providers may not be aware of our requirements for senders and our filter incorrectly recognizes them as spam. This can even happen to established providers in some unique cases. If someone who sends email to you, receives the message below, saying that there is a permanent failure, first check with your friend to be sure that they have the correct address. If so, and the problem persists, have your friend submit the error message to their email provider’s support channel.

Here is an example of the message that your friend would see:

PERM_FAILURE: [Your Friend’s Email Provider] tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support (state 13).

If the information above doesn’t help address your specific situation, please contact customer support.

Protecting Your Identity: You can’t afford to take the back seat.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:52:53 GMT

Identity protection is one of the most important considerations in today’s society. At every corner, you are asked to give your email, mailing, web site address, or even more personal information. According to the Javelin Strategy and Research February 2007 Identity Fraud Report, 8.4 million people had their identity stolen in 2007. This is big business that the study shows costs each victim an average of $5,720.

Understand how phishing works by reading this example story of a phisher.

Phish – (MSN Encarta - commit fraud to get financial information: to trick somebody into providing bank or credit-card information by sending a fraudulent e-mail purporting to be from a bank, Internet provider, etc. asking for verification of an account number or password)

A day in the life of a Phisher

Evil Ed sits in his easy chair with his laptop, watching TV. He’s doing web searches on names that he found from various Internet forums and chat rooms. Ed has written a computer program to read these sites and gather names and email addresses. The program puts these names into a file on his computer.

Ed loves his house. Everything in it was bought and paid for by someone else. He grins as he begins the day’s work. First, he calls a contact that is looking for email addresses. Ed has just finished creating the list of new emails his program found that week. His database now has over 40 million unique addresses.

After agreeing on a price for the complete list, Ed hangs up the phone and begins his real money maker; stealing people’s identity. Ed has another computer program that takes all the names it found with the email addresses and sends them through all the search engines he can find. When the search returns numbers or words like “street”, “avenue”, or a city, it catalogs those to a smaller file.

It’s here that the work begins. First, Ed cross references the information he finds in Internet white pages with any public records that are available, such as deeds, death notices, or marriage licenses. When he finds connections, those people can expect to have their cell phone companies, Internet Service Providers, and any other discoverable business relationship phished.

Ed calls a dating site he found and presents himself as innocent@somedomain.com. “Here’s my address I used to sign up for an account. What are the last four digits of my credit card? Hmmm, well I know I used a few different ones during that time, I think it was a Visa®?” The agent, trying to be helpful answers yes, no, or provides a helpful hint, “No, it was a MasterCard®.” Ed hangs up the phone.

He immediately calls back and now phishes for the last four digits of the MasterCard®. This is called social engineering and you can see where this goes. How about the people that didn’t have any connections to accounts or other information? Well, Ed still has the email address and the web site it was found on, as well as the email provider (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc). Ed now creates an email that looks exactly like it is from that provider. The email tells the user that their account is expiring, in violation, or needs more information. Click this link now to save this account! Each person that clicks that link, and enters that information, has now been caught in the phishing net.

Ed ends his day by heading out to the mailbox. It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon now. He hopes that the letter from his cousin Andy has arrived. Andy works in a refreshment booth at one of the many tourist attractions in his area. Every month, Andy mails Ed a list of credit card numbers and names that he has copied into his notebook. He gets these numbers from people paying for their food and drinks.

Ed chuckles to himself; just because the Internet Age is here, why ignore the original methods of identity theft?

You can protect yourself – here’s how:

Never post any personal information in an Internet forum, chat room, or blog. Doing this allows programs like the one described above to harvest and use it for other reasons. This can be anywhere from full blown identity theft to using your email address as the “From” address in their spam; most likely getting your account closed by your email provider in the process.

Search on yourself. Go out to search engines like Microsoft Live Search and enter your name in the search box. You may be surprised by the results. Something as innocent as being listed in the phone book can get you listed on the Internet. Each data provider has different methods that you must take to remove the information, if you choose to do so.

Enroll in an identity protection program. Today, every credit card, mortgage, or other lender offers some type of identity protection program. Do your homework and find the one that monitors all three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, and which fits in your budget. A good service will send you a proactive report each quarter. The higher-end services offer real time alerts to your phone or email. You should only need one program for all of your accounts.

Change your account information. Changing your password is not enough. You must also change your secret questions and it is recommended that you also change other information. Maybe change your house phone to your cell phone or your house address to your mother’s address. Not every account warrants the same change, but your critical ones do. Put up as many barriers to social engineering phishes as possible.

Ensure you are running virus protection, malware protection, and a firewall. Ensure that they are all current with updates. Although this is now becoming a truth along the lines of you should look both ways before crossing a street, I cannot stress enough the importance of this item. In my days as an independent consultant, I worked with many clients and businesses that could have saved both time and money, in the case of my bill and their lost work, if they had only installed and turned on their security software. Microsoft offers products like Windows Defender and Windows Live OneCare that together offer a unified platform for users wanting to protect their personal information and computer systems.

Don’t let your ATM/credit card out of your sight. This one isn’t easy sometimes, especially in restaurants, but do you best to maintain visual contact with your ATM/credit card at all times. The news of the day is all the online identity theft. That is because the traditional method of manually stealing names and numbers through garbage sifting and unethical service employees is old hat. If your card leaves your sight, be diligent about reviewing your statement. Shred all personal documents, such as account statements, pill bottle labels, and even the pre-approved credit offers, when you discard them.

Own your information. Many people do not realize that they own their personal information. Even more people do not exercise that right. Each pre-approved credit offer is a check on your credit score. Each time you list in your local phonebook’s white pages, you also list in their online directories. The way to maintain and control this information is different in each case. Some are tedious, like removing yourself from all pre-approval lists after buying a new home, to others which are much simpler, like merely submitting a request to the company. At Microsoft, privacy is one of our top concerns and we have a very strict privacy policy. Every employee at Microsoft must complete a privacy training course annually.

In closing…

The scope and prevalence of this crime is that we must protect ourselves and our family. Law enforcement agencies the world over are understaffed and overworked in trying to shut down identity theft rings. Be safe and be sure. Be the one who is protecting your identity.

Until the next time…

-s

Resources

· Microsoft Security at Home – Ways to keep your family's online experience safe and enjoyable: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

· Federal Trade Commission – Latest regulatory information, studies, and legislation: http://www.ftc.gov

· Snopes.com – Debunking of urban legends: http://www.snopes.com

· Authentication and Online Trust Alliance – Consortium of email senders, providers, and support leaders committed to the Internet trust ecosystem: http://www.aotalliance.org

· Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group – Global organization focusing on preserving electronic messaging from online exploits and abuse with the goal of enhancing user trust and confidence, while ensuring the deliverability of legitimate messages: http://www.maawg.org/home/

Internet Explorer Optimization steps

Tue, 27 May 2008 12:53:47 GMT

For Internet Explorer 6:

1. On your desktop, launch Internet Explorer.

2. On the "Tools" menu, click "Internet Options."

3. On the "General" tab, click "Delete Cookies," then click "OK," if prompted.

4. Click "Clear History," then click "Yes."

5. Click "Delete Files," select the "Delete all offline content" check box, and then click "OK."

6. Click "Settings," under "Check for newer versions of stored pages", select "Every visit to the page."

7. Click "View Files," press CTRL+A to select all the files, and then press "DELETE." When you are prompted to confirm, click "yes," close the window and click "OK" to close the Settings dialog box. If there are no files in the window, close it and click "OK" to close the Settings dialog box.

8. Click the "Security" tab, click the "Internet," select "Default Level", if it is available, and then click "Apply." Repeat this step for the "Restricted sites," "Trusted sites," and "Local Intranet" zones.

9. Click the "Restricted sites" icon, click "Sites," select a listed site (if there are any), and then click "Remove." Repeat this step until all the sites are removed from the list. Click "OK" when you are finished.

10. Click the "Trusted sites" icon, click "Sites," Uncheck the "Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone" checkbox.

11. In the "Add this Web site to the zone box," type *.hotmail.com , and then click the "Add" button. Do the same for *.passport.com, *.live.com, and *.msn.com, and then click "OK." You will know that you successfully added the sites because you will see the sites in the Web sites box. If you receive a "Trusted sites" error message, verify the spelling of your entry.

12. On the "Privacy" tab, click "Sites" or "Edit." Under Address of Web site, type *.hotmail.com, and then click "Allow." Do the same for *.passport.com, *.live.com, and *.msn.com. Click "OK."

13. On the "Content" tab, click "Clear SSL State," then click "OK." Skip this step if "Clear SSL State" is unavailable.

14. Click the "Advanced" tab, click "Restore Defaults," and then click "Apply."
15. Click "OK" to close "Internet Options."

For Windows Explorer 7:

1. On your desktop, launch Internet Explorer.

2. On the "Tools" menu, click "Internet Options."

3. Under Browsing history, click "Delete."

4. In the Delete Browsing History window, click "Delete cookies." If you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click "Yes." It may take several minutes to delete these files if you have a lot of files, then click "Close."

5. Click the "Advanced" tab, and then click "Restore Advanced settings."

6. Click the "Security" tab, click the Internet icon, click "Default Level," and then click "Apply." Repeat this step for the "Restricted sites" and the "Trusted sites" zones.

7. Click the "Trusted sites" icon, click "Sites," and uncheck the "Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone" checkbox.

8. Under "Add this Web site to the zone", type *.hotmail.com, and then click "Add." Do the same for *.passport.com, *.live.com, and *.msn.com. Click "Close."

9. Click the "Privacy" tab, and then click "Sites." Under Address of Web site, type *.hotmail.com, and then click "Allow." Do the same for *.passport.com, *.live.com, and *.msn.com. Click "OK."

10. Click the "Content" tab, click "Clear SSL State." Skip this step if "Clear SSL State" is unavailable.

11. Click "OK."

Workaround for Invalid Cookie Settings problem

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:03:05 GMT

Hello,

We have noticed that the majority of the users who are experiencing invalid cookie settings error have their mailbox bookmarked or a shortcut created on their desktop.

We request you delete the bookmark/shortcut that you have created and follow these steps:

1. Sign out from your account.

2. Go to http://mail.live.com

3. Save a shortcut to your Desktop.

4. Save your e-mail address and password on the Sign In page. Then sign in to your account.

5. Access your account from the shortcut that you created on your Desktop.

Thanks,

Windows Live Hotmail Team

Scott's Top 30 Windows Live Hotmail Help Topics for Mail and Settings

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:06:27 GMT

Hey Everyone,

There is a ton of stuff that you can do in the Windows Live Hotmail Mail Settings. I've complied a list of the Top 30 articles we have that surround this topic. You can find all of our articles at http://help.live.com.

Have a good one!

-Scott

Top 30 Windows Live Hotmail Help Topics: Mail and Settings

New Phishing Mail: IRS Economic Stimulus Program

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:18:17 GMT

Hey Everyone!

I was just made aware of a new phishing mail that is making it's way around. If you click the email link, you will be redirected to a phishing site (image below) with a URL of 203.232.105.39:8976/_irs.gov/irfofgetstatus.htm. You should immediately delete this message. Do not enter any information into the site pictured below.

Here is the official IRS government site that details the stimulus package.

-s

--------------------------

SUBJECT: IRS - Economic Stimulus Program and contains the following text:

Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as
part of President Bush program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the
2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by
direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit
before May 10th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be
processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 10th, 2008 or later means that
your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we
anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus Refund, please click here.

NOTE: If you received this message in you SPAM/BULK folder, that
is because of the large amount of e-mails we are sending out
or because of the restrictions implemented by your ISP.

© Copyright 2008, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Responding to Customer Feedback – Disabling DAV

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:53:31 GMT

Recently, many customers received notification regarding Microsoft’s plan to disable the DAV protocol, which allows you to access your Windows Live Hotmail inbox from Outlook Express. From the feedback we received, it became clear that you needed additional time to evaluate alternative solutions and with this in mind, we are postponing the transition deadline previously announced. This means that you will continue to be able to access your Windows Live Hotmail accounts from Outlook Express beyond the June 30 transition deadline.

As Microsoft continues to evolve its products to meet your needs, we appreciate your feedback. This change to Outlook Express protocol is one such evolution and will allow for managing of multiple accounts and today’s large inboxes. We will update you on expected future changes and alternatives with enough advance notice to ensure a smooth transition.

We apologize for the inconvenience this change may cause.

-Windows Live Hotmail Support Team

OE migration to WLM - some messages not successfully migrated

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:54:30 GMT

Hey -
         My name is Nauman Qureshi and I'm the Tech Lead working on Windows
Live Mail with my colleague Scott Hammer (who some of you might already
know). I've been receiving a lot of complaints from customers who have run
into issues in migrating their accounts successfully from OE to WLM. While
there are technical reasons for this issue, I will skip those (unless
someone is interested in learning what they are). I'm going to jump directly
into how you can resolve this problem:

Please follow the below steps:

1) Open Windows Live Mail (close Outlook Express if its currently running)
2) Click on "File" (If you do not see the Menu on the top part of the
program, this means it's hidden. In order to see the menu, hit ALT+M and
select 'Show all menus')
3) Then click on "Import" and select "Messages"
4) From the new window that popped up, select the program you want to import
    from
5) If you are importing from Outlook Express 6, and haven't changed the
    default store location of the folders, click "Next" (if you did change the
     location of the store folder, please
     choose the location by clicking the "Browse" button)
6) Click "Next" (keep the default selection of "All folders")
7) Once all the data has been imported, click "Finish"

You can view this migrated folder under "Storage Folders" > "Imported
Folders" in Windows Live Mail.

Let me know if you have any questions -

Thanks a lot!
Nauman Q

Correction to Statement: Eric Lai Computerworld Article

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:23:57 GMT

Hello All,

I wanted to provide a quick correction to the article that Eric Lai just published: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=software&articleId=9079018&taxonomyId=18&intsrc=kc_top.

I incorrectly worded my statement:

Hammer said that Hotmail users will also still be able to use any other desktop e-mail client that is POP3-compliant, such as the open-source Thunderbird software.

This should read:

"...Hotmail PLUS users will also still be able to use any other desktop e-mail client that is POP3-compliant, such as the open-source Thunderbird software."

I apologize for the incorrect statement I wrote and any confusion that may have caused. Eric, thanks for picking up on this so fast. :)

-Scott

We ARE Listening.

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:13:37 GMT

Hi Everyone,

As I'm sure you can understand, my team has many various activities involved in the global support of Windows Live Mail technologies (Hotmail, controlling Inbound/Outbound SPAM, and Live Mail). Many of you come to this blog in search of answers and to add your comments. I wanted to take this time to let you know that we DO monitor your comments from this blog and feed them back to the product group. Your voices on our blog help shape a better Hotmail!

To further expand our involvement with you; beginning Friday, April 18, 2008 we will be actively participating in the English newsgroups at the Microsoft Discussion boards. We will be monitoring and responding to the following groups:

Outlook Express General
Windows Live Mail Desktop
Internet Explorer General
Internet Mail

I look forward to interacting with all of you on these forums in the upcoming months.

Warm Regards,

Scott
Sr. Support Program Manager
Windows Live Mail Technologies (Hotmail, SPAM, Live Mail)
Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Announces Changes for Accessing Hotmail with Outlook Express

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:48:17 GMT

A change is coming for users that access Hotmail with Outlook Express. Outlook Express uses a protocol called DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol) to access a Windows Live™ Hotmail® e-mail account. DAV, like POP3 or IMAP, is the way that a mail client communicates with a web-based mail server.

As of June 30, 2008, Microsoft is disabling the DAV protocol and you will no longer be able to access your Hotmail Inbox via Outlook Express. As an alternative, we recommend that you download Windows Live Mail, a free desktop e-mail client that has the familiarity of Outlook Express and much more.

This next generation of free e-mail software will allow you to easily manage multiple e-mail accounts—including Windows Live Hotmail, plus other e-mail accounts that support POP3/IMAP. Better yet, Windows Live Mail integrates well with other Windows Live services, and downloads in minutes. After you provide your user name and password, you will automatically be linked to your Hotmail account, providing continued access to your email and contacts.

We encourage you to download Windows Live Mail at http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview. We will continue to update this blog with information regarding this move.

To help aid in this transition, we've included some frequently asked questions:

Q: Why are we disabling DAV?
A: DAV is a legacy protocol that is not well suited for client access to large inboxes. Over time, as we’ve increased e-mail storage limits for Windows Live Hotmail customers—and now offer 5GB inboxes for free—a more efficient access protocol is needed.

Q: What are we replacing DAV with?

A: We have developed a new, much more efficient protocol called DeltaSynch that is far superior to DAV especially for large e-mail inboxes. It enables email clients to only download changes since the last time the client polled the email server for changes. This is much more efficient and high performing than having to download all the headers in every folder as is the case with DAV.

Q: Is DeltaSync compatible with Outlook Express?

A: The new protocol unfortunately is NOT supported by Outlook Express and support would require too many changes to the Outlook Express software.

Q: Is there a different or new mail client I can try that uses DeltaSync?

A: Microsoft is providing Windows Live Mail, a free e-mail client that has the familiarity of Outlook Express and much more. This free, next generation e-mail client enables users to easily manage multiple e-mail accounts including Windows Live Hotmail and other e-mail accounts that support POP3/IMAP. Windows Live Mail also integrates well with other Windows Live services, is optimized to work with Windows Live Hotmail, and offers:

· Offline mail

· Windows Live Hotmail account aggregation for those users with multiple Hotmail accounts

· Account aggregation for POP and IMAP mail accounts

· Rich photo-sharing capabilities

· Advanced search via integration with Desktop Search

· Safety tools (Anti-Virus scanning, anti-phishing, anti-spam features across aggregated accounts for customers who do not have an Anti-Virus product)

· Integration with Windows Live services including Windows Live Messenger, Contacts and Spaces

· RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed aggregation

· Ability to send SMS (short message service) text to a mobile phone from Windows Live Mail

Q: If I have technical issues when switching, where can I find assistance? Is there a tech support hotline?

A: Please visit http://help.live.com.

Mail being sent out as blank

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:25:57 GMT

Updated 4/4

Hello Everyone,

The problems some users were having sending blank mails were resolved by a hotfix that was released early this week - users should no longer be running into that issue. If you're still see the problem, please contact our support team by filing a ticket at http://support.live.com

Thanks

Brandon

Do I need to sign in using Windows Live Mail

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:38:15 GMT

About signing in to Windows Live Mail

You don't have to sign in with a Windows Live ID to use Windows Live Mail, and you can add accounts and send and receive e-mail without signing in. However, if you do sign in to Windows Live Mail, you can connect to other Windows Live services and gain access to additional features of Windows Live Mail such as:

Photo E-mails: If you create a photo e-mail while you're signed in to Windows Live Mail with a Windows Live ID, high-quality versions of the photos are saved on Windows Live servers for 30 days. These photos are linked to thumbnail versions in the e-mail. This means that the e-mail will be smaller and that the recipients can view the photos without having to download them. For more information, see About photo e-mails.
Windows Live Messenger: If you have Messenger installed on your computer, you can automatically sign in by clicking the Messenger icon in the folder pane, and you can also access Messenger features such as instant messaging and Windows Live Call from within Windows Live Mail. For more information, see Send an instant message or another type of message.
Windows Live Contacts: If you're signed into Windows Live Mail with a Windows Live ID, you see the same address book as you do in Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, and other products that use Windows Live Contacts. Any changes that you make to your contacts in Windows Live Mail also take effect in those products and services. You can also choose to share your contact information on your Windows Live space, and you can ask to receive automatic updates when your contacts change their contact information. For more information, see Organize your contacts.
Blog: You can post e-mail messages that you've sent and received, RSS articles, or newsgroup posts directly to your online blog on Windows Live Spaces. If you aren't signed in to Windows Live Mail and you don't have Windows Live Writer installed on your computer, you must manually enter a Windows Live ID before you can continue. For more information, see Post messages on an online blog.

Important

Signing out of Windows Live Mail doesn't prevent other people from accessing your e-mail on the current Microsoft Windows account. Anyone who opens Windows Live Mail in a particular Windows account can see all of the e-mail accounts that have been added to Windows Live Mail, regardless of whether or not they're signed in to Windows Live Mail with your Windows Live ID. You can't create Microsoft Outlook Express e-mail identities in Windows Live Mail. Instead, to protect each user's e-mail with a password, create a separate Windows user account and password for each person who wants to use Windows Live Mail on the computer. For more information, see Protect your e-mail with a password.

Note

If you've never signed in to Windows Live Mail, your address book only contains the contacts that you've added directly to Windows Live Mail.

Beware of suspicious emails that claim to be from Hotmail

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:23:35 GMT

For many years, scammers out on the internet have sent e-mails that claim to be from Hotmail but are actually fake and some are even dangerous. You’ve probably gotten similar emails pretending to be a legitimate bank or other business. Read the entire post...

Install and run Windows Live Mail for the first time

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:21:59 GMT

Windows Live Mail is a free, downloadable e-mail program that lets you get e-mail from multiple e-mail accounts in one place and puts the world of online communication on your desktop. Whether you want to exchange e-mail with colleagues and friends, read web feeds, or trade ideas and information, Windows Live Mail gives you the tools that you need to integrate your e-mail with Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Messenger, and more.

To install and run Windows Live Mail for the first time:

On the Windows Live Mail download page, click Get it free.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Notes

When you run Windows Live Mail for the first time, you're automatically prompted to add an e-mail account. For more information, see Add an e-mail, newsgroup, or contacts directory account.
To see the system requirements for Windows Live Mail, go to Windows Live - System Requirements.

del.icio.us Tags: Windows Live Hotmail,Windows Live Mail,Hotmail Support,Live Mail Support,Hotmail Technical Support,MSN Technical Support,Windows Live Technical Support,Hotmail,Microsoft,Windows Live

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Hotmail,Windows Live Mail,Hotmail Support,Live Mail Support,Hotmail Technical Support,MSN Technical Support,Windows Live Technical Support,Hotmail,Microsoft,Windows Live

Error when Clicking Send

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:49:43 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Recently, some of our users have been experiencing an error when clicking send from Windows Live Hotmail. This error would return as:

Windows Live Hotmail was unable to complete your request

Xfs request 'DeliverMessage' failed. Response code: 'InternalServerError', server response: '999 0'

This was due to your account residing on a server that was undergoing maintenance. Our operations team has been working diligently on this issue and have reported that it should now be resolved.

If you continue to receive an error when clicking Send, please go to http://support.live.com and select Windows Live Hotmail. Select Error when clicking send on the form and submit. An agent will then be able to help you further.

Warm Regards,

-Scott

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Hotmail,Windows Live Mail,Hotmail Support,Live Mail Support,Microsoft

Problems Sending or Downloading Attachments

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:06:51 GMT

Windows Live Hotmail doesn't support all file types. If you send an attachment that Windows Live Hotmail doesn't support, the e-mail recipient won't be able to download or open the attachment. You can't unblock a blocked attachment after it's been sent. However, to send or receive an unsupported file type as an attachment, use one of the following methods, or ask the person sending you the attachment do so:

Compress the file.

Use a zipped folder or a third-party compression program to compress the file, and then attach it to your e-mail message as a .zip file. See your software documentation for information about how to compress a file.

Change the file extension to .txt.

Locate the file that you want to attach, right-click the file, and then click Rename.
Type txt in place of the original file extension, and then press ENTER.
Attach the renamed file to your e-mail message. Remember to tell the recipient how to change the file extension back after they download the attachment to their computer.

Upload the file to Windows Live SkyDrive.

SkyDrive is a free service that you can use to store and share your files online with friends or with anyone in the world. Use any computer connected to the Internet to access your files, and share your public files or folders with anyone by e-mailing them a link to the file or folder. You can upload files up to 50 MB in size, and you receive a total of 5 gigabyte (GB) of online storage space.

To get started with SkyDrive Beta, go to the Windows Live SkyDrive website.

Notes

Some e-mail programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, block certain types of attached files to help protect against viruses. You'll be notified if you attach a file that others may not be able to open.
For a free Windows Live Hotmail account, the maximum size for an attachment is 10 MB. For a paid Windows Live Hotmail account, the maximum size for an attachment is 20 MB.

Windows Live Hotmail doesn't support the following file types. Your operating system, firewall, or other software may also cause additional file types to be blocked.

.ade	.adp	.app
.asp	.bas	.bat
.cer	.chm	.cmd
.com	.cpl	.crt
.csh	.exe	.fxp
.hlp	.hta	.inf
.ins	.isp	.its
.js	.jse	.ksh
.lnk	.mad	.maf
.mag	.mam	.maq
.mar	.mas	.mat
.mau	.mav	.maw
.mda	.mdb	.mde
.mdt	.mdw	.mdz
.msc	.msi	.msp
.mst	.ops	.pcd
.pif	.prf	.prg
.pst	.reg	.scf
.scr	.sct	.shb
.shs	.tmp	.url
.vb	.vbe	.vbs
.vsmacros	.vss	.vst
.vsw	.ws	.wsc
.wsf	.wsh

Top Tips for E-mail Safety

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:25:49 GMT

Basic e-mail safety

The e-mail you send is largely unencrypted – meaning anybody with internet connection and computer know-how has the potential to intercept your correspondence. However the typical user will have the latest virus protection and/or security suite as standard, so your computer will always be reasonably secure. Security is especially worth remembering when using computers outside of your home, school or office. A year ago I would happily log on to my internet banking from a cyber-cafe. These days I might think twice, just to be on the safe side. Read More...