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Hotmail complaints keep flowing in

Karen Gomm ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 24 Nov 2005 13:45 GMT

Over 50 people have contacted ZDNet UK in the last two months to complain of problems accessing Microsoft's Hotmail service.

Some complainants say they have been unable to access the Hotmail log-in page, while others say they can't get as far as their own inbox.

Although these complaints represent only a fraction of the total Hotmail user base in the UK, they indicate that Microsoft's flagship Web email service may still be suffering from problems that first emerged earlier this year.

Back in February, Microsoft confirmed that server problems were preventing some Hotmail users from accessing the service. Since then, some 150 people have posted TalkBacks to ZDNet UK complaining about the service, despite Microsoft's claim that the problems have been fixed.

One reader said this week that he had only sporadic access to his account and could find no technical reason for this. "Over the last two months I've sometimes been getting a window showing that Hotmail is suffering technical problems when I try to log in. It's completely random as sometimes it will let you log in straight after and other times it won't for hours," he said.

Another reader reported that she had a similar experience, where she could not access her inbox.

"It wouldn't let me into anything on my account. The only thing I could use was my MSN Messenger. It lasted for about a month and definitely wasn't the computer as my housemates and friends could get into their accounts. Eventually, randomly, it just started letting me use it again, it wasn't that I had used too much memory — I'm using barely any, I have no idea what caused it," she said earlier this month.

Other users were able to access the Hotmail homepage but could then get no further — with pages timing out frustratingly.

"The main problem I had was the page timing out after entering my log-in details," said another Hotmail user. A further customer added "I have tried using both Firefox and Internet Explorer. When logging in using Firefox I get a time out error."

Some Hotmail users have also complained that they got limited support from Microsoft when a problem was reported. One told us...

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