Hi. I'm currently a student from the Midlands hoping to go to uni in the near future. I've been try...
Hi. I'm currently a student from the Midlands hoping to go to uni in the near future. I've been trying to find the time to write on Ciao since joining a while ago now, so my opinions may be few and far between. Thanks for reading!
Member since:16.10.2001
Reviews:9
Members who trust:3
I first came across the Hotmail free email service last year, and I have been a member ever since.
I followed the rather lengthy registration process, which asks you the usual array of questions regarding where you live in the world, and also tries to encourage you to signup to various “Junk mail” providers. These are definitely worth skipping.
Unlike most people I have spoken to, I was also able to get a meaningful username, instead of something with four or five numbers stuck on the end, making it increasingly hard to remember for you and your friends.
With its newly revamped design, the Hotmail site itself is now very feature heavy, something which more professional users with appreciate.
The service supports the usual POP mail forwarding, which is very useful if you have ISP accounts which you want to check while away from home or on the move.
The site is still quite slow, but not anywhere near as bad the snail pace I got used to when accessing from home.
The new design makes navigation between different folders in your mailbox, and also finding options pages much easier than before.
Another feature which most users will appreciate is the virus checker on email attachments. This service is provided by McAfee, and is very reliable and reassuring when you receive attachments you are unsure about (and you should now be suspicious of all attachments).
A Junk mail filtering service is provided, and works to a certain extent, although I’ve that the odd email which I want to keep gets filtered into the wrong folder. This can easily be sorted though, by simply adding the sender to a list of email address which won’t be filtered (your safe list).
You can also block senders completely, so you never see any mail from those services which you add to your block sender’s list.
The Hotmail service is available in many different languages, which may come in handy if you don’t speak too much English.
The service also features many other little gimmicks which you can mess around with, but I have mentioned the main ones which enhance the functionality of Hotmail.
Now for the downsides. The Hotmail service limits you to a maximum upload file size of 1mb, which is quite limiting when wanting to send large files home from work or school. The service also has a maximum account size of 2048k (around 2mb). This means that the attachments and emails themselves cannot add up to more than this amount, or your emails may be deleted after a certain time (you are warned in advance).
Overall, the Hotmail service is very functional, and now with its improved interface, it is also considerably faster than before. Sadly, the site has not increased its rather harsh limitations on account size and attachment upload size. It is also increasingly difficult to get a username which is easy to remember.
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Comments about this review »
alexandrapontecaille 19.10.2001 23:13
i used to have an account with them but quit due to many junk mail
Alex
Lgair 18.10.2001 11:42
I think Hotmail is better than it used to be. Lots of my family have Hotmail accounts and they don't seem to be complaining as much anymore. Thanks for your opinion! Lisa
Stalin 18.10.2001 09:54
A tip - make your paragraphs longer, it makes it much easier to read. Otherwise great op.
very helpful by (100%):
