Outlook & Hotmail - Time to Move on?

[mat]

Not sure how well this post will go down as there must be a lot o
Outlook fans here - anyway here goes!

I used *Outlook Express* with a *hotmail* account for as long as I ca
remember and had no problems

Since the advent of the *outlook connector* combined with *Outlook 200
and hotmail/windows live* I have been plagued with problems

_All_I_want_to_do_is_check_mail_online_via_a_browser,_download_the_mail_to_a_local_client_and_be_able_to_keep_doing_that_however_large_my_mail_file_gets_

That simple task now seems impossible

Yes Outlook with Exchange is fine - I come across very few issues (eve
as an Exchange Admin in the past) but as a home email scenario the O
Connector just does not work or does not work reliably

I have just started a thread in the OL Connector page detailing tha
but it's something I have been querying with MS for over a year - the
have dialled into my PC previously and could not resolve it

I have completely rebuilt my XP box, re-installed & patched Office 07
the latest OL connector so come on that 'should' work surely?

I now have more problems than before I rebuild the PC!

GENERAL FRUSTRATIONS ASIDE, MY QUESTION IS THIS:

I can't get Outlook to work with hotmail anymore & the forums ar
stuffed with similar miserable people wasting hours of their lives an
getting nowhere

SO WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?[/B] WILL NOT MANY IT SEEMS. I'VE ALREADY PAI
FOR OFFICE 2007 AND OUTLOOKS RUBBISH SO I'M NOT KEEN ON PAYING FO
ANOTHER EMAIL CLIENT SO IT'S FREE ONES THEN...

STAYING WITH MS I COULD TRY 'WINDOWS LIVE MAIL CLIENT' INSTEAD O
OUTLOOK BUT I CAN'T FIND IN DEPTH DETAILS OF IT'S FEATURES. DIGGIN
ABOUT IT APPEARS IT WILL STILL BE USING SIMILAR SYNC TECHNOLOGY SO MAYB
THAT WONT WORK EITHER?

ALSO I WANT TO IMPORT IN MY OLDER MAIL FROM PST'S - THIS SEEMS TO B
VERY DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE INS WINDOWS LIVE MAIL. I GET A LOT O
MAIL & I WANT THE ARCHIVE TO GROW OLD GRACEFULLY NOT GO CORRUPT LIKE PS
HAVE A HABIT OF DOING

NON MS

Well it's Mozilla Thunderbird or something even more obscure with les
chance of it working I guess

On the surface TB looks good but again their forums are stuffed wit
'different' issues

SO... is it better the devil you know? or is there a better solutio
out there?


I dont want any fancy features, I just want reliable mail that I ca
read online and download locally - shouldn't be too much to ask?

Any thoughts welcome

Help

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Not sure how well this post will go down as there must be a lot of
Outlook fans here - anyway here goes!

I used *Outlook Express* with a *hotmail* account for as long as I can
remember and had no problems

IMAP or Exchange.

POP3 went out of style a long time ago. Hotmail phased out the old
protocol and switched to Deltasync. Deltasync appears to be not reliable
enough for you. Don't blame Outlook product for the failures of an
add-in that uses a proprietary protocol.

Gmail via IMAP works for me.

Microsoft Online Services hosted Exchange works for my smaller clients,
but it has a 5-user minimum license count. There are other hosted
exchange providers without such minimums. Syncs great with phones.

Given choice, stay with Outlook. I am using Thunderbird to write this
for its newsreader.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Not sure how well this post will go down as there must be a lot of
Outlook fans here - anyway here goes!

I used *Outlook Express* with a *hotmail* account for as long as I can
remember and had no problems

Since the advent of the *outlook connector* combined with *Outlook 2007
and hotmail/windows live* I have been plagued with problems

_All_I_want_to_do_is_check_mail_online_via_a_browser,_download_the_mail_to_a_local_client_and_be_able_to_keep_doing_that_however_large_my_mail_file_gets_

That simple task now seems impossible

Not impossible at all. Just use Hotmail's POP settings. See this:
<http://windowslivehelp.com/solution...your-e-mail-account-to-microsoft-outlook.aspx>

 

[mat]

IMAP or Exchange.

POP3 went out of style a long time ago. Hotmail phased out the old
protocol and switched to Deltasync. Deltasync appears to be no
reliable
enough for you. Don't blame Outlook product for the failures of an
add-in that uses a proprietary protocol.

Gmail via IMAP works for me.

Microsoft Online Services hosted Exchange works for my smalle
clients,
but it has a 5-user minimum license count. There are other hosted
exchange providers without such minimums. Syncs great with phones.

Given choice, stay with Outlook. I am using Thunderbird to write this
for its newsreader.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

Thanks for your input:

"Deltasync appears to be not reliable enough for you".
- It's not reliable at all!

"Don't blame Outlook product for the failures of an add-in that uses
proprietary protocol."

I look at this as a MS mail solution;

"MS Mail service (hotmail) & MS Mail client (Outlook)"

The MS client might change but it does the same job regardless of what
underneath protocol or otherwise and if it doesn't work properly the en
result is still a mail client that's no use with ms mail

If you mean "Gmail via IMAP works with Outlook then thats an option -
could stop using my hotmail account and switch over but a huge task a
I'm signed up to a zillion sites using MS

"Given choice, stay with Outlook"
- But I cant get it to work?

If I want to keep my hotmail address it looks like I'm out of luc

 

[mat]

Not sure how well this post will go down as there must be a lot of
Outlook fans here - anyway here goes!

I used *Outlook Express* with a *hotmail* account for as long as I can
remember and had no problems

Since the advent of the *outlook connector* combined with *Outlook 2007
and hotmail/windows live* I have been plagued with problems

_All_I_want_to_do_is_check_mail_online_via_a_browser,_download_the_mail_to_a_local_client_and_be_able_to_keep_doing_that_however_large_my_mail_file_gets_

That simple task now seems impossible

Not impossible at all. Just use Hotmail's POP settings. See this:
<http://windowslivehelp.com/solution...your-e-mail-account-to-microsoft-outlook.aspx>

strange - your URL doesn't show up in Google chrome until you hit
quote/ reply! Bizarre

I did consider forwarding hotmail to gmail & popping that but last time
I looked you can only forward to microsoft email domains!!

if it works pop3 'ing my hotmail will suit me fine - thanks I will try