Author Topic: Hotmail users, please read this  (Read 28369 times)

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Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Hotmail users, please read this
« on: June 30, 2006, 05:59:21 pm »
I've been getting a lot of complaints since the forum went online from hotmail users.  Apparently their e-mail servers just eat e-mails, then pass them on days later or never.

Many people registering on this site and on U13 have complained that they never get the registration e-mail, and all of them are on hotmail.  A quick google search shows that hotmail indeed is to blame for this. 

Most of you probably know that I'm pro-linux and therefore anti-microsoft, but that has absolutely no bearing on this posting or my decision to blame microsoft/hotmail (look at the google search).

"Queued mail for delivery" means that their server has properly accepted the e-mail and plans to deliver it to that user's inbox.  They're reporting this and perhaps it is true, but then the server either drops the e-mail or takes days to deliver it.

I just wanted to present to you this fair warning that if you use hotmail, you may be getting far fewer e-mails than you should.  My estimates place this number as high as 5-10% of e-mails to hotmail are not making it.

If anyone wants a g-mail invite, please feel free to e-mail me and I will immediately respond with an invite. 

I'm just stunned that someone (even microsoft) can run such a shoddy e-mail service.  Apparently this problem has been around for at least a year or two (based on the age of some of those google results), and yet they still haven't fixed it.

I'm very relieved to find out that it isn't my server configuration causing this problem, but frustrated by the fact that I can't do anything about it

If you are registering on the forums with a hotmail e-mail address, there is a good chance you will not get your activation e-mail.  To get around this: try logging in with your unactivated account, and request a new e-mail until you get one
« Last Edit: July 11, 2006, 09:26:43 pm by FliesLikeABrick »

Offline Lapis Lazuli

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2006, 06:40:20 pm »
herp. Removed my email address from the public eye, as it were. No longer really necessary.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2013, 03:31:29 pm by Lapis Lazuli »
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Offline jrgp

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2006, 07:59:20 pm »
me too (I have 99 I am Never gunna use) jrgpmaster at gmail dot com
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Offline frogboy

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2006, 12:06:08 am »
You can also get an invitation sent to you via mobile from Google:

https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsMailSignup1

Offline kingkitty

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2006, 09:44:49 am »
I found no problem with my hotmail :0.

i also have yahoo,aol,and gmail,

should it be time to switch anyways?
I'm away.

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2006, 12:50:18 pm »
guys, you don't need to turn this into a gmail invite thread.

kingkitty, definately time to switch

Offline Deadeye Rob

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2006, 02:16:17 pm »
I had a similar problem. But i think it is down to the Hotmail 'Junk Mail' folder.

Most unwitting people send their activation email, and realise it has not come through. This can be in some cases that Hotmail has declared it junk at leaves it in the Junk Email folder until the player designates it as useful! Hope this helps!

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2006, 02:17:49 pm »
I had a similar problem. But i think it is down to the Hotmail 'Junk Mail' folder.

Most unwitting people send their activation email, and realise it has not come through. This can be in some cases that Hotmail has declared it junk at leaves it in the Junk Email folder until the player designates it as useful! Hope this helps!

They are not ending up in the junk folder, hotmail is actually losing the messages (I've researched this quite a bit)

Offline Deadeye Rob

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2006, 02:26:17 pm »
Really? i havent had that problem before, Can you go into more detail?

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2006, 02:47:55 pm »
Really? i havent had that problem before, Can you go into more detail?


Sure:

Whenever a Linux server sends an e-mail, it registers the progress of the transation in its syslog (system logger).  E-mails sent to hotmail users show up as "250 Queued mail for delivery" which is a success message, meaning that the e-mail has been successfully received by hotmail's servers, and it will be delivered to the user's inbox shortly.

This happens for all messages sent to hotmail, and it is normal.  The problem comes because even though hotmail says this, the message never makes it to the user's inbox.  Something is happening within hotmail's servers that is losing messages.  There is nothing that anyone can do about it except for hotmail (if they take the time to fix it in their servers).

Below is an example.
Code: [Select]
05:32:04 outcry postfix/smtp[12514]: D74E3E805A: to=<someone@hotmail.com>, relay=mx1.hotmail.com[65.54.244.136], delay=1, status=sent (250  <20060624093203.D74E3E805A@u13.net> Queued mail for delivery)

It appears that one or two out of every 100 e-mails sent to hotmail never arrive.

Offline snipedmyself

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2006, 10:33:47 am »
thats exactly what happened to me but i just thought it was this sites fault hmm thanks for sharing

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2006, 09:32:39 am »
first thing.. whats g-mail :P and how do i make an account for it. Im still gonna keep my hotmail for messenger and crap but im gonna switch for soldat. Thanks for all the help FLiesLikeABrick ;)

Offline Bgretydews

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2006, 09:38:43 am »
Just send FLAB an e-mail and he will e-mail a invite for Google Mail, then you can create you account and stuff.
You can switch your hotmail thing so you can have your msn as, whatever@gmail.com to.
http://yossi.jrgp.org/?action=maps&sa=user_maps&u=10
Image (and link) is broken. Feel free to fix it.

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2006, 10:20:59 am »
Just a quick update to say that it is more than 1 or 2% of emails, though I can't guess how much it is.

Date Posted: August 08, 2006, 09:52:35 AM
other links, perhaps with a bit of an explanation(from google):
http://www.alldeaf.com/showthread.php?t=7967
http://www.datatelligence.net/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=78
http://store.riverpast.com/checkout/aol_email.php

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/05/05/1237245.shtml
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/22/2248253

http://davesource.com/Bugs/hotmail.1.html
« Last Edit: August 08, 2006, 11:25:54 am by FliesLikeABrick »

Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #14 on: September 05, 2006, 11:12:19 am »
guys, you don't need to turn this into a gmail invite thread.

kingkitty, definately time to switch
i use msn, and msn works for the hotmail email checking website, is it a problem with anyone else?
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Offline Toumaz

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2006, 11:35:50 am »
What is this "hotmail email checking website"?

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #16 on: September 05, 2006, 11:46:26 am »
What is this "hotmail email checking website"?

I have no idea what you're asking about

Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2006, 08:55:14 pm »
ok, if you go to www.hotmail.com to check your email, you can check msn and hotmail email, note the email checking website portion of my previous post.

My question is, does hotmail's mail issues have any impact on msn and it's reliability or am i just paranoid?

there is a picture provided that may help you (i scaled it down like you wanted flies.)
If we hit the bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate. -Zapp Brannigan

Offline Gold

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2006, 05:37:42 am »
I switched from Hotmail to Inbox.com about 4 days after registering here, i think i changed the email and re-activated my account with my Inbox.com email account though.

Offline FliesLikeABrick

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Re: Hotmail users, please read this
« Reply #19 on: September 16, 2006, 05:54:36 am »
4-year-old:  it may effect msn.com users too, but since there are about 200x more hotmail users out there, I noticed the problem there first.  If some day MSN gets a lot more users and they start reporting the problem, then I will ban that e-mail address too.