MS is stopping support for Hotmail through Outlook pretty soon.
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Microsoft US will this week start charging for a Hotmail feature that
allows users of the Web-based e-mail service to access their e-mail
using the Outlook e-mail client.
Microsoft is making the move not to increase
the number of paying Hotmail users but because the feature is being
abused by senders of spam, said Brooke Richardson, lead product manager
for MSN at Microsoft.
"Essentially what spammers do is create
scripts so they can rapid-fire e-mail from Outlook or Outlook Express
and pop off a hundred e-mails from each of those Hotmail accounts in
rapid succession," Richardson said. "On certain days we have seen tens
of thousands of Hotmail accounts set up and spamming in this matter."
To prevent abuse of the feature, Microsoft
will stop making it available to new users of free Hotmail and MSN mail
accounts starting Monday. Current users can continue to use the feature
but will be asked to become Hotmail subscribers over the coming months.
By April next year, the feature will no longer be available for free,
Richardson said.
The Hotmail and MSN mail feature is known as
WebDAV, after the Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning
(WebDAV) protocol that enables it. It is enabled on about 5 percent, or
9.4 million, of the 187 million active Hotmail accounts, according to
Richardson.
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You can use AOL through an IMAP client also. No, I don't use AOHell,
but in my support business I have to keep up with these things.
[ Full Tutorial Link ]
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AOL users have been plagued for years by an outdated email system that
lacked basic features offered by Outlook and other email clients. But
on April 5 America Online began offering IMAP access to AOL email
(Keyword: Open Mail Access).
Set up your new account as usual. Here are the AOL IMAP and SMTP server addresses.
- imap.aol.com (port 143)
- smtp.aol.com (port 587)
Use your AOL screen name and password (not AIM password) to log in. The SMTP server requires authentication to send mail.
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With Gmail, you can't "technically" use a POP3 client; however apps such as
www.gpopper.com simulate this pretty darn well. It kinda defeats the purpose of Gmail to me, but it works fairly well.
Edited by xeerex