Things don't seem to show any sign of slowing down. People are still steaming about their accounts. Below is another link to a brief article on the issue. FWIW, I apologize for not naming this thread more accurately. I should have called it "Warning for Hotmail Users" or something so people don't think it's a post stating my own problem with the service. I just hope any Hotmail users here aren't experiencing any problems and can take proper steps to back things up before something does ! Here is a link that might be useful: Digital Journal Article

Periodically and unpredictably, I think the Hotmail servers get overloaded and it's hard to get in. I have this problem once in a while, but never late at night when most folks are asleep....

I have used hotmail as my primary email since 97, I started out as an msn dial up customer and got the hotmail and msn email addies, I use the hotmail daily. I am now with Verizon fios which also has msn so I still have all my msn addies. I also have the msn browser which I love to use to view my hotmail. I have not tried the hotmail live since I like the one I have so well. My other fave is using gmail through mozilla thunderbird. Works super good and no ads at all plus all the good points of gmail and the ease of thunderbird and of course there are add ons for thunderbird just like for firefox. If you already have a gmail account I would say try downloading and setting up thunderbird to get your gmail and use it. The directions to do that are on the gmail site under the settings tab, using Pop and Imap, thunderbird's new version is supposed to be set up following the imap directions. It is very simple. You can then have your full address book and it will fetch all your mail for you. Here is a link that might be useful: thunderbird

Hotmail/Live/Outlook.com (all the same!) goes down. A lot. It has nothing to do with your end's equipment. If one of their servers goes south, it drags. It shows up badly because it keeps EVERYTHING except your message headers and preferences on its servers. That includes your attachments, mail, mail aliases, and address book. You rely on their servers to be hot and spicy, and they ain't always so. If you complain (I have) they'll get back to you after things are fixed and report no problem found.