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11 Apr 2009
Millions of Hotmail, Windows Live and MSN customers were left high and dry after another outage left them unable to access their inboxes for around two hours.
When users tried to log in at around 5am yesterday morning, they were presented with a message which read: 'You don’t have an inbox … yet.'
According to a posting on the Microsoft Live blog, the incorrect message was sent out because of "a network issue that we encountered while doing routine maintenance".
"We have corrected the problem and you should be able to access your Hotmail and other Windows Live services again now," the blog continued. "We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this issue, and we thank you for using Windows Live."
Any users who are still experiencing problems have been asked to contact Windows Live Help.
Although the timing of the incident means that UK customers are unlikely to have been affected, the news will add to those doubts some users have over the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
In February, Gmail suffered a major outage for around three hours after one of the firm's European datacentres overloaded, causing cascading problems through its other datacentres.
While these outages are generally few and far between, they cause anger and panic among the user community. Given their high profile, such incidents may deter corporates thinking of investing in mission critical web-based services such as email.
However, the SaaS model is nonetheless making steady inroads into the corporate IT sphere. Last month software company Serena Software migrated 700 of its staff over to Gmail in one day.
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Hotmail Problems for A Year and More!
"Use Hotmail to manage your e-mail accounts Logging into multiple e-mail accounts every day can be time-consuming. Instead, you can download your Gmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus, or other messages right into folders in your Hotmail inbox. Keep in touch with everybody in one convenient place! Put your e-mail into one place now. " August 2009 "Come into my parlour," said the spider to the fly... That is what hotmail promises! Perhaps it should tweak itself first before making any promises. I have not been able to access my hotmail account and emails on and off for more than a year now and there is practically no technical support by hotmail! Should I still live in hope that one day my email account will be back to normal? Or should I switch over to Yahoo where I have not had a problem at all from day 1?
Posted by: Clariissa 28 Aug 2009
hotmail
i was absolutely shocked when i could not get loged on to my account and because i cant remember my secret anser i have now had to set up a new hotmail account and get intouch with my contacts and i have lost half of them and i tried getting intouch with msn and as of yet still no reply UNBILEAVABLE
Posted by: cameron 27 Apr 2009
no hotmail connection?
Why is it i suddenly have no hotmail connection, leaving me in limbo because i cannot check anything at all.
Posted by: karen 26 Apr 2009
The Problem with Mega SaaS Providers
this is one of the problem going for a large company providing SaaS solutions. Gmail and Hotmail in any case have targeted the consumer market, where always on availability is not considered critical. i prefer to go for smaller SaaS providers like HyperOffice (http://www.hyperoffice.com) for my business applications. if ever there is a problem, i can get in touch with a real person on the phone and get my problem resolved quickly.
Posted by: Kirk 24 Apr 2009
Hotmail Blues
I've been trying to log into Hotmail for the past 24 hours with no luck :(
Posted by: cmack 17 Apr 2009
email account
I have been a hotmail subscriber for over eight years, Recently I have not been able to access account "papagab@hotmail.com. I have tried so many times that now hotmail will not let me change a password. Can you help. I am desparate to down-load important messages?
Posted by: George Baker 17 Apr 2009
This kludge works
After determining that the problem wasn't on my end, by having two friends try to sign in on their computers, I started experimenting. On the "Sign-in Error" page, click on the Account link, then click on Change Password. After you change your password, click on either Home or Mail. This fix works as long as you keep your browser open. If you close your browser, then you will have to repeat the process. One of the people who tested my account for me also has his own Hotmail account, and he is having no problems with it. Also, the problem is not specific to either 2K or XP or to any version of either Internet Explorer or Firefox. I deleted cookies and passwords and temporary Internet files. I scanned with Avast!, AdAware and Defender, on all three of my computers. The hosts file on each computer is virgin. In short, the problem is entirely on Microsoft's end.
Posted by: Martin Maloney 16 Apr 2009
same old same old
The same thing is happening again tonight "essential maintenance" ???? why were we not told in advance
Posted by: kieran adlum 16 Apr 2009
Frustrated
I am unable to open my hotmail.com email. It has been several hours and no help!!!! I tried to create a login for your solution center but that was a flop. How long must we wait?
Posted by: Katie 15 Apr 2009
i can't open my hotmail / live.com e-mail
i am having a problem opening my live.com e-mail.Always there is another user coming out , whenever i open my e-mail address.
Posted by: alex perez 14 Apr 2009
1 Day no E-Mail Access
I happen to have more than one E-mail account with "Hotmail" and they are out for over a day now with no kind of notification. When trying to enter my E-mail(s) there is no type of message that appears but "Page unavailable". Wondering when this problem will finally be solved.
Posted by: Cedrick 14 Apr 2009
windows live mail
I think that this is really a kick in the butt! I still cannot get my mail open in hot mail now what am I suppose to do? If there is any one out there who can help now is the time to get started, especially those who own this site.
Posted by: Susan 13 Apr 2009
No surprises here...
Isn't it *interesting* that after SCOURING the Internet for news of this outage I found nothing other than THIS vnunet article (aside of course from soothing comments made by some anonymous Microserf minion meant to minimize the situation's seriousness). Microsoft clearly has no shame. They took Sabeer Bhatia's perfectly ROBUST, RELIABLE web-based email suite and dumbed it down for pre-adolescent girls with all sorts of useless features ("Hey cool! Now I can send my email in a pink font! In italics! With underlines!!!) while removing some of the most useful features such as being able to easily see the IP addressing information or sorting one's email in box by size of message. They've also made getting to the current hotmail service status page as obscure, it seems (to users such as myself) as humanly possible. But I guess this is what happens when the Internet gets democratized for the Lowest Common Denominator of users... sigh...
Posted by: J Evert 13 Apr 2009
fuss
it really scared people keep your network up
Posted by: daniel 12 Apr 2009
Hotmail problems
This is now 3.15 pm on 12 April and I still cannot log on to my hotmail because of a screen that states we can help with Junk mail. I click continue but it still does not give me access to my mail. What is the problem here?
Posted by: Tom Daly 12 Apr 2009
Hotmail problem
I would ike someone to get in touch with me to sort out the problem of not getting access to my mail. 01368 830728
Posted by: Tom Daly 12 Apr 2009
Hotmail Madness
Hi Jessica, I too have had problems, I was unable to access my hotmail account on Friday night. I am a bit wary to go back on now thought, even though it is supposed to be safe, as my parents recently got a virus on their computer through Windows Hotmail. Just wondering if someone can confirm it is now totally safe to go back on? Thanks, Katie MacLeod, Mexico City
Posted by: Katie MacLeod 12 Apr 2009
still having problems!
I have been trying to log into my accounts with hotmail for more than 6 hours. I continually geta message saying my address or password is incorect. I have checked the obvious and yes everything was correct. I opened a new @live.com account and that one too is failing to allow me to log in. There are bigger problems here by the looks of things
Posted by: Jessica 11 Apr 2009