# In other words, Hotmail, you suck **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 15, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119 "2002-07-15T21:19:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/1 "2002-07-15T21:19:29Z")
My letter to Microsoft today, after they made me go through a ton of automated shit that doesn’t answer my question: > [@](#): > > Why doesn’t Hotmail allow me to filter incoming email, to remove any that have potentially virus-infecting attachments? Such as, why can’t I command to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif? > > My system was infected with a worm virus your McAfee didn’t detect. Now I get emails all the time from strangers, containing this particular virus, on an attachment that’s 312K consistently. These emails go to my junk folder, and I trash them without opening them. > > However, they fill up the minuscule memory you allow for free very rapidly. Often causing me to not get email because you say I’m over my limit. (Interesting that you don’t empty junk mail automatically before doing that. Really wanna sell that $19.95 upgrade, don’t ya?) > > The only junk mail filter you offer is to automatically trash ALL emails that come into junk mail. Well, I don’t want to do that. My junk mail folder consistently contains emails that I want to receive, but have not yet marked as ‘This is not Junk Mail.’ Therefore, doing it will cause me not to get these emails. This is where my fellow Dopers all come and tell me Yahoo is a much better free, web-based email service, with a lot more standard storage space. I know. A conga-line where everybody passing by me just boots me in the ass will suffice. Changing email services, and informing people I want to know about the change, is going to be a BITCH. ---
**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/2 "2002-07-15T21:33:24Z")
> [@](#): > > This is where my fellow Dopers all come and tell me Yahoo is a much better free, web-based email service, with a lot more standard storage space. I know. You forgot “You get what you pay for.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/3 "2002-07-15T21:34:51Z")
~da dee da da conga~_boots milo’s ass_~da dee da da conga~\* 😛 ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/4 "2002-07-15T23:36:37Z")
Dammit, **tiggeril** beat me to the punch. 🙂 Now I’ve got nice conga music in my head. And I’m picturing a line full of crazy whacked out Dopers conga lining and kicking you in the head. So all in all, I’m rather amused. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/5 "2002-07-16T00:32:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > \*\*This is where my fellow Dopers all come and tell me Yahoo is a much better free, web-based email service, with a lot more standard storage space. I know. > > A conga-line where everybody passing by me just boots me in the ass will suffice. > > Changing email services, and informing people I want to know about the change, is going to be a BITCH. \*\* It’s not so bad to change mails - no one says you have to shut one down while starting the new one. Just reply to every mail that you care about on Hotmail from Yahoo. It may take a few months, but you can wean yourself off of it. If you’re risking losing messages anyways due to your account being full, then you have little to lose. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/6 "2002-07-16T06:23:01Z")
MicroSoft’s acquisition of Hotmail is yet another example of a good, relatively dependable free service turning to crap unless you pay the premium. The only reason I had a Hotmail account was so that I could access my ISP e-mail remotely. They shut that service down two weeks ago. Haven’t been back to Hotmail since. Sayonara, little Billy… jayjay ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/7 "2002-07-16T09:55:29Z")
yahoo-yahoo-yahooo _kick_ yahoo-yahoo-yahooo _kick_ (I know, Lola beat me to it. But I just got these neat new boots) ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/8 "2002-07-16T10:02:24Z")
Yahoo has removed POP access as well. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/9 "2002-07-16T10:06:12Z")
I would _love_ to find out if Bill Gates has a problem receiving spam mail. The minute he gets pissed off at receiving 10 e-mails about viagra, 5 e-mails on hot barnyard porn, and 42 e-mails about how to find out what your kids are doing on the Internet, that’s when Gates will kindly ask the Microsoft tech wizards to come up with the ultimate spam-killer. Of course, such a solution would be so fraught with bugs and errors that it wouldn’t make much of a difference for a while. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/10 "2002-07-16T10:53:07Z")
I wouldn’t mind so much _if_ the Custom Filter option were a bit more dynamic. Something along the lines of “If _Subject_ _Contains Attachment_ _\>such-and-such amount_, _Send to Trash_”. But no-o-o-o-o-o-o, you can only filter out words… ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/11 "2002-07-16T12:08:21Z")
Excite and OperaMail both allow POP3 access. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/12 "2002-07-16T23:37:51Z")
I know two people already beat me to the conga line thing, but I just gotta say: now I have that “Folow the Leader, leader, leader…” music in my head from the weekend grad banquet afterparty when a bunch of people did a conga line. Then there was the limbo thing… 🙂 Hotmail has a whole bunch of spam, which is why I got off it a couple of years ago. F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/13 "2002-07-17T00:01:14Z")
And, as a nice little coda to this thread, Hotmail appears to be down, _hard_, right now. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/14 "2002-07-17T00:45:51Z")
Update: I got an email back from my friendly Microsoft support person. I’ve already trashed it, so I can’t quote it verbatim. But it went something like this: “Hi, my name is Dieter (or some other name that reminded me of “Sprokets” for some reason), and I’ll be assisting you. Sorry you are having this problem. If you could please tell me what your Junk Mail filter was set at, and email me back, I will see what I can do to fix the problem.” I fire back with, “Um, did you _read_ my first complaint letter? My filter is set at ‘high.’ If I set it at the only higher level, ‘exclusive,’ you will simply automatically trash all of the letters that go into my junk mail folder. I’ve already told you the reasons I don’t want this to happen. My question was, why can’t you give us more filtration options? I can’t possibly be the only person getting this virus attack via email.” Now they’ll send me an email back telling me to set the filter at exclusive, or there’s nothing else they can do. Gee, thanks. I’ve already figured that part out, dickwads. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/15 "2002-07-17T02:34:00Z")
It’s a relief to see that I’m not the only person having trouble with Hotmail lately. Today, I can’t even get in. In spite of my blocking as many addresses as I can, and setting the box to remove spam to the trash bin, I keep getting it, but messages from friends, or from groups like mediasquatters don’t even reach my box! It sucks rocks. A few months ago, I signed up for [byteme.com](http://byteme.com), but that was just an angry reaction to Hotmail. On the other hand, byteme offered 8 mg free space (4 times what Hotmail allows now), though it seems possible that the policy of byteme may change. You can pull in email from other POP boxes. I also have an account at [www.philipkdick.com](http://www.philipkdick.com), but it gives only 5MB free space, which is still 1MB more than Yahoo. The big advantage to the byteme account is that for some reason, people DO remember my address… ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/16 "2002-07-17T07:13:16Z")
Weird … my Hotmail is fine today, but my Yahoo! inbox is completely inaccessible; I can only reach the login screen. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/17 "2002-07-17T13:26:06Z")
Update: Here’s how the good and helpful people at Microsoft responded to my most recent letter. Not that this is not the same person who responded to my first letter: > [@](#): > > Thank you for writing back to us. > > This is Jomary and I am writing in response to your inquiry on how can you > protect your Hotmail account from receiving junk mail. > > I understand your concerns. When junk mail is sent to your MSN Hotmail account, > the Junk Mail Filter moves these messages to your Junk Mail folder. The Junk > Mail folder is emptied periodically. You can also choose to have these messages > deleted as soon as they are sent to your account. This option is useful if you > are close to your storage limit, or if you have set up a child’s account and you > don’t want the child to open the Junk Mail folder and see the messages. > On the Options page, under Mail Handling, click Junk Mail Deletion. > Click Immediate Deletion, and then click OK. > Notes > If you are setting up a child’s account, you can use the above setting along > with the Exclusive setting on the Junk Mail Filter so that only e-mail from > people in the child’s Contacts list is delivered to his or her account. > Use the Exclusive setting along with the Safe List and Mailing List settings so > that e-mail from specific addresses, mailing lists, and trusted domains is not > automatically deleted. > To see how much storage space you are currently using, check the storage meter, > located on the Home page and the Folders page. > > I apologize for the inconvenience. Should you have other inquiries, please > feel free to email us back again. > > Sincerely, > Jomary M. > > MSN Hotmail Customer Support > > Your satisfaction with my Customer Service is very important to me. If you > consider your issue resolved, please click on the link below to let me know > how I am doing. With your comments, please include my name and ticket number > (found in this mail’s subject line) to help me keep track of my performance. See, “they understand my problem.” I want to know how the junk mail folder works! Because I don’t understand it now! And I want to protect those children I don’t have from things in my junk mail folder! I’m glad they clarified that for me! When you go back and read my OP, it all makes so much _sense_ now! I’m not being flooded with spam and junk mail, you useless fucks!! I’m being flooded with emails from real people, who have received a virus causing them to send out emails unbeknownst to them, containing the virus as an attachement they want people to inadvertently click on and further spread the virus. These attachments are LARGE, and only about six of these emails sent to me causes me to be over my capacity. And then you stop giving me emails I want. If I set my junk mail filter to “exclusive” and automatically trash all incoming mail that is not on my list, I will DEFINITELY lose unopened emails I want to receive. (Incidentally, for whatever reason, this never has happened to me on my work email address, which is Yahoo.) I did their little customer survey, and when they ask what specifically contributed to me giving them a low mark, I put: “That the two people who responded to my inquiry didn’t seem to read or understand my inquiry at all, and rather than READING WHAT I HAVE TO SAY AND RESPONDING SPECIFICALLY TO IT, they read some pat answer you have in a notebook somewhere. It’s no more useful than your mountain of automated crap that also didn’t answer my question.” I’ll stop boring you all with this. But … man. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/18 "2002-07-17T14:07:37Z")
[Ah feel yo pain](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70002). I’m not picky about food but I hate canned responses. ---
**Author:** ![aquariusrhimme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aquariusrhimme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aquariusrhimme)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/19 "2002-07-17T16:38:15Z")
I signed up for Hotmail a few months ago and I stopped using it almost immediately because my mailbox was filled everyday (from day one) with spam mail…even though it was a new address. Signing up for Hotmail was like signing up to receive nothing but junkmail. WTF!!! ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119/20 "2002-07-17T17:25:25Z")
I feel your pain. Oh I do. I too would really, really rather not switch e-mails. I have other e-mail addys, but I have had my hotmail one since I was 13. _everyone_ I have ever known _knows_ they can reach me at that e-mail. SIgh. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-words-hotmail-you-suck/119119.md?page=2)