"...you can now read and send Hotmail with the built-in Mail.app in OS X."

Just to clarify... you can only receive email, you cannot send it using POP3 access with a free hotmail account. I used to use freepops to have access to my Hotmail accounts in Mail, but I've been using the method posted above for about a month now. It works rather well, just can't send emails which is no biggie to me. That's what my real email account is for ...gmail! ;)

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I have a free MSN account email (essentially hotmail) and I can send via POP3, all I had to do was enable authentication on the smtp portion of the account setup.

That said, sending is wicked slow, but it sent a test email from my hotmail to my gmail.

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Sweet!! It is REALLY slow, but it does work like you said! Thanx for the tip!!

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Rather than using POP3 directly in Mail.app, I suggest getting a Gmail account and then telling Gmail to pick up your hotmail email via POP3. Then add the Gmail account in Mail.app. You'll get full access to your hotmail, but with much more functionality.

There are two main benefits to this setup: vastly superior spam filtering, and IMAP access to all your email.

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That might be the part where the "old enough" account become relevant...
I know that not everybody can use the forwarding option on their Hotmail account...

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It isn't forwarding. Gmail can be set up to log in to hotmail via POP3, exactly the same way that any email client app would.

Instructions for Gmail's Mail Fetcher function are available at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=21288.

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You might want to check on the Advance Tab to make sure Incoming mail port is set to 995 and the Outgoing mail port to 25.
Also make sure "this server required a secure connection" is check.

But I think only "old enough" accounts can use this feature. There has been a lot of debates about that. Although, mine is 8 years old so I can't confirm. It's simply working on my Mail client.
(Who could have though that I would says that for a MS service)!

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According to Microsoft, it is available to all hotmail users.

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It isn't forwarding. Gmail can be set up to log in to hotmail via POP3, exactly the same way that any email client app would.

Instructions for Gmail's Mail Fetcher function are available at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=21288.

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I have a hotmail account that I am able to download to Mail and read messages, but when I delete or read messages in Mail, their status is not modified online, and messages are not deleted from Hotmail online.

Is there anyway to fix this?


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It is because you are using POP, if you we're using IMAP it would bodify online too. POP is more secure because you may delete imporant mail that you have to keep, you can access it online. So if you want to let this work, you have to find a IMAP way.

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I just tried to add my Hotmail account on iPhone and it did work automatically. I can check my account just like gMail!

Not that I use my Hotmail account that frequently but seems like Microsoft finally realizing what they have been missed out! I can't believe they wanted to charge people for this!

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I've followed the directions exactly but I can't get Hotmail to work.

Is there anything that needs to be done at Hotmail's end?

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Make sure that the incoming mail is not only the correct server, pop3.live.com but also the correct port, 995. And make sure to use a secure server connection.

If you want to send mail from this account make sure that the smtp (outgoing) server is smtp.live.com and the port is 25 and that you enable authentication with your user name (email address) and password.

---
David Austin Allen
Monterrey, NL, MX

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Many thanks for the extra tips. Mail now seamless. Perfect.

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Do you still get webmail access? What is the behavior? I know that webmail access would still be important. Really, I want IMAP at hotmail, but I think there are setting that make POP more bearable. Any tips welcomed.

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Yes, you still have web access. If you want IMAP, follow my advice above about using Gmail.

Gmail will use the POP3 access to retrieve all your hotmail on a regular basis, so it will always be up to date, and you will then be able to take advantage of Gmail's IMAP support.

You can even set Gmail up to send email using your hotmail address, so that everything looks the same to everyone else.

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What POP3 settings do you use for Mail.app and Gmail? Do you leave mail on server? When does it get deleted? If you don't leave them on server, does that removed them from the hotmail webmail interface? Knowing that Gmail is an option too, I'm wondering what the closest POP3 settings are for IMAP-like behavior on Hotmail.


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This hint partially worked for me :
I set up a new mail account in Mail.app and I have been able to retreive only a few messages (like less than ten of the oldests) and since then it checks the account but doesn't retreive anything although I still have messages in my hotmail mailbox.
For information, my email address ends with "@msn.com".
Do you have any idea that could help ?

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