# What's the deal with none MSN passport users being able to use MSN? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515 "2004-10-27T18:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Zarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarina)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/1 "2004-10-27T18:52:02Z")
And how come when I try to enter on a non MSN email address, it doesn’t let me through. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/2 "2004-10-27T18:58:01Z")
I have no idea what you’re asking. ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/3 "2004-10-27T19:29:52Z")
I’m not quite sure what you are asking, but I am currently signed on to msn and I do not have a hotmail or otherwise microsoft related email. I used my normal email, registered for passport with it and that worked. This was a few years back though. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/4 "2004-10-27T22:13:14Z")
> [@blinx](#): > > I’m not quite sure what you are asking, but I am currently signed on to msn and I do not have a hotmail or otherwise microsoft related email. I used my normal email, registered for passport with it and that worked. > > This was a few years back though. msn and hotmail is the same, is it not? Naturally, you can’t use your yahoo or aol. ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/5 "2004-10-27T22:16:34Z")
ahh… darn it, I might have completely misunderstood it all, to me MSN equals MSN Messenger, which is the only MSN thingy I ever used. I get the feeling there is more than that to this, and if so please disregard my post. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/6 "2004-10-28T00:13:45Z")
Well it was possible at one point to use a non-hotmail account to sign up for an MSN passport, which could be used to access MSN content and MSN Messenger. Whether that’s still possible, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/7 "2004-10-28T06:06:19Z")
Yes, it is still possible. My MSN passport uses my Yahoo email address. When I worked for MSN in tech support a trainer said he didn’t know what a “My domain” passport was… he was surprised that you could use non MS email addresses for a passport. But it works just fine. I’m not sure how I set it up though. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-none-msn-passport-users-being-able-to-use-msn/271515/8 "2004-10-28T16:41:22Z")
Passports used to require that you either had: [ul] [li]A hotmail account - this gave you a passport and a free email account[/li][li]An MSN ISP account - this provided you a passport using your [MSN.com](http://MSN.com) email address[/li][li]A Passport account created at the Passport site. This used a @passport.com name without actually being an email account[/li][/ul] 3 Years ago, Microsoft changed the way Passport works to allow users to use any email address as their Passport login. This was for security reasons (to be able to send the customers lost passwords) and also based on customer feedback. At this time a Passport can be: [ul] [li]An existing Hotmail account[/li][li]An existing [MSN.com](http://MSN.com) email address[/li][li]A passport created at the Passport registration site. This can be whatever email address you with to use when registering (wht the exception of “forbidden” email addresses: i.e. [Microsoft.com](http://Microsoft.com), [msn.com](http://msn.com), [hotmail.com](http://hotmail.com)).[/li][/ul] When you log into any Passport enabled website you can use any valid Passport. If you do not yet have a passport, you must first register for one before you can log in using just any old email address. I hope this helps.