# What the heck is wrong with Hotmail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245 "2001-08-26T23:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/1 "2001-08-26T23:57:19Z")
I’ve been using Hotmail as my e-mail service for years. However, starting today, clicking on “free Hotmail” on my internet explorer browser, I’m no longer taken to [http://www.hotmail.com](http://www.hotmail.com) but instead to [http://www.microsoft.com/misc/redirerr/nomatch.htm](http://www.microsoft.com/misc/redirerr/nomatch.htm) What gives?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/2 "2001-08-27T00:02:02Z")
Clicking on your first Hotmail link brought me to [this login page](http://lc3.law13.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/login) for Hotmail. Might be a DNS problem with your ISP. Dunno. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/3 "2001-08-27T00:08:35Z")
When I click on your first link I’m taken to [http://lc3.law13.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/login](http://lc3.law13.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/login) which appears to be a login page for Hotmail. If you’re clicking on a link, it may be corrupted. Try typing in the url. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/4 "2001-08-27T00:13:11Z")
Could also be a cookie issue. Try deleting your hotmail-related cookies and see if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/5 "2001-08-27T00:49:12Z")
A friend of mine just spoke to me on ICQ. He has microsoft’s Australian page as his homepage (for some strange reason), and he told me that this morning, clicking on “home” takes him to that [http://www.microsoft.com/misc/redirerr/nomatch.htm](http://www.microsoft.com/misc/redirerr/nomatch.htm) page that **pkbites** mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![jack\_ss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jack\_ss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jack_ss)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/6 "2001-08-27T01:51:40Z")
I haven’t been able to add attachments to any emails all weekend. Friday, it was fine. Now when I click the attach button after browsing to the file I want to add, it sits there and eventually gives me the “page cannot be displayed”…I swear, If it wasn’t free, I wouldn’t use hotmail at all. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/7 "2001-08-27T06:49:22Z")
I have not had any problem with hotmail in the last days. After the changes a few weeks ago, the spam filters work pretty well and it all goes to the bulk mail folder. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/8 "2001-08-27T10:58:06Z")
I work for tech Support at an ISP and today somebody told me that exact same thing - every other site was fine, but Hotmail was unreachable on his entire office LAN. Looks like, as I suspected, a congenital MS problem somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-hotmail/78245/9 "2001-08-27T12:25:01Z")
The main thing wrong with hotmail is that they don’t curb spammers except for spammers of other hotmail clients. Or maybe they do, but since it is free the culprits just turn around and register for a new free account. Either way, all incoming email of hotmail origin goes straight to the trash by way of spam filter unless I specifically enter an individual as an exception.