Is Hotmail hot hot hot? (hotmail.com)

Member Name: johngas7

Product:	hotmail.com
Date:	12/10/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent free email service, easy to use

Disadvantages: Annoying junk emails (although they are usually filtered to the junk box)

Hotmail is a free web-based email service from MSN that you can access from anywhere (unless it's been blocked by work or College etc of course!)

Sign up is quick and when registered you can start using your new email account straight away. You can also register for Windows Live messaging, where you can message friends and other contacts instantly.

You will need to use your service at least once every so often, it's something like 90 or 180 days but you could check that. If you don't access it within the specified period then the account will become de-activated so you'll lose your account and all emails/contacts etc stored within.

Emailing is easy - just click on 'New', add the recipient's email address, subject and text and hit send - the message will then be saved in your sent folder for a period of time. When logged in you will also get notifications when emails arrive, so you can check them as soon as they hit your inbox.

You can add email addresses to your contact list, so you don't have to keep remembering the address or typing it in full each time. When you view messages you can either keep them in your inbox, move them to another folder - you can even create subfolders to put them in, or you can delete them where they will be kept for a period of time before being deleted from your account completely. There's also the option to store messages as drafts, so if you want to save a template email, for example, you can store it in there to re-use.

Hotmail is very easy to use and it's advantage over Internet Service Provider's (ISP) email account such as Virgin Media, AOL etc, is that it doesn't matter who your ISP is, you can still access Hotmail. So, if you left Virgin Media or AOL, you'd lose their associated email account.

Unfortunately, like with many email accounts, Hotmail is a target for spammers but many dodgy messages are sent straight to your Junk folder. You can tweak the settings of emails you receive to make a safe or blocked senders list. It's worth checking the Junk folder regularly though, as messages are deleted after a few days and some messages that aren't junk can occasionally be sent there, without you knowing. Also, you should set a strong password and security questions that nobody can guess, to avoid the unhappy situation of hackers getting into your account. They are about so be vigilant!

Make sure you put your pop-up blocker and firewall on as well, to stop the illicit ads popping up - especially important if you have kids using hotmail or watching you when you are accessing your emails.

It's worth setting up an email address with Hotmail,. Even if it's for specific accounts or mailing lists you are on etc. I've used hotmail for many years now and highly recommend it!

Summary: Great option for free webmail