Hotmail Performance

[dannylee28]

I am running WinXP with an AMD XP 1600+ on an EPOX 8KHA+ MOBO with 256MB Kingmax DDR.

The Internet Explorer Im using is the latest version 6.

Whenever I go into Hotmail, there is always a DELAY between pages. I do not have this problem using my office computer (Win98) and friend's (Win 95). This is not really a problem but it does get on the nerves waiting for the pages to refresh.

Have emailed Hotmail but no reply. I have NOT change any of the settings (all are at default).

Hope someone can help me out here!

Rgds, Danny

[Google]

[jadison]

First of all, welcome to TweakNews! :)

Now down to business: Keep in mind that although your computer hardware/software do a play a role in your Internet Experience, they don't play the most important one: Your Connection!

You could have the fastest computer on the planet, but if you have dial-up you'll be surfing at the slowest speeds! One reason pages aren't loading up quickly (or fast enough for your liking) is most likely because your internet connection is slow(er).
What type of Internet Connection do you have?
Dial-Up?
ISDN?
Satellite?
DSL?
Cable?
Wireless?

Test your speed HERE and report back to us what your results are. If you have a slow internet connection like dial-up then that's probably why your pages don't load up fast enough.

[SensoO]

I had a similar problem with my high powered system. After pulling out a lot of hair, I swapped my NIC (Network Interface Card) for a newer one I had lying around. After that, encrypted sites (such as hotmail) ran perfectly. So if you are in fact connectiong to broadband or some other high speed network, you should try a recent NIC. The old school Realtek 8* cards that many ISPs give away like candy don't work well with the newer networks. I know the original thread was posted a while ago, but I hope this helps.
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[tebriel]

hotmail uses M$'s passport feature. This does run some stuff in the background and could also be the cause of your problems. Since WInXP has integrated passport stuff...this is a likely solution also.
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[SavedToDeath]

All well-intentioned answers aside, I have used hotmail for years, and there is no doubt about it, It has indeed become very slow at times for log-in. It is unbearably slow, and I in fact have never encountered such a slow authentication system anywhere else on the net with any other email service. It is inexcuseably poor. Yes, a connection can make a difference, but a sign-in page for email should never require a lot of bandwidth, and even when I had a very slow computer in the past and a very slow connection to hotmail, my log-ins took place a lot faster, and more reliably, in general. It is a free service, and I do appreciate it, but.... FACTS ARE FACTS. Why I am saying this it also should be recognised that many features of hotmail are nicely designed... In principle this should be a pretty fast system, and it's not a bad one in most respects.
Microsoft did communicate with me once regarding sign-in failures and did point out that the majority of sign-in problems relate to the use of cookies by the hotmail server. You have to realise that everyone has become much more security concious in general, and along with that, the updates to Internet Explorer seem to have become progressively more agressive in features relating to the control of cookies. If you are a user which has found themselves utilizing these features to protect yourself to a greater degree from anonymous cookies and illegitimate websites that have revoked permissions, etc... this might very likely be the cause of your sign-in problems. Resetting the Privacy and Security settings in Internet Explorer tools to their default settings will frequently eliminate your hotmail log-in problems. The problem with that is obvious if you pride yourself in trying to keep your web travels a more secure affair. What does it say about Microsoft if higher security and privacy settings cannot be used if you attempt to interface with on-line Microsoft programs? It sort of makes me cringe.
One last comment regarding that topic: It has always struck me as ironic that a large number of Microsoft sites have security certificates that have expired, and if you utilize those keys available in Internet Explorer to inform you that a website's registration has been revoked, is not correct, or has expired, it is as likely or more likely that you will get a message informing you of that situation on a Microsoft site as you might anywhere else. You would think they would want to set some kind of example for others to follow in terms of demonstrating that they do take security seriously.
Microsoft has indeed done a lot of good work, but to this day it remains obvious that security for a long time was the last thought of issue in their books. The need to lower your security and privacy protocols within Internet Explorer tools management in order to enter a hotmail account only woefully underlies this fact, at least in the eyes of this user.

[asdxrwh]

I have sent many messages to supporrt@hotmail.com about a specific problem not covered in their standard email responses and FAQ's. I NEED to talk to a living breathing human, does anyone know a phone number? My problem: Randomly 50% of email that I send while using Internet Explorer 6.0 and Hotmail does not get to the recipient with message text ncluded. The recipient gets my name, email address, and the subject line but not the message text. PLEASE HELP!!!

[SavedToDeath]

Geez, what a pain!

First of all, I am definitely not an expert regarding email communications, and for that reason I will not waste your time presenting opinions as fact regarding your problem. A problem like this has so many possible variables, you yourself being one of the biggest of many of them. I offer the following thoughts along with this clear declaration that "I haven't got a clue" as to why this is happening to you...

If I had this problem I would probably check for viruses on the computer originally utilized to send your messages (on the odd chance that messages were being deleted by certain users with active virus protection as being infected. Anyone, can get hit by a virus in spite of whatever tactics they use to protect their equipment.) If I had been using Outlook or Outlook Express to access my email account, I would probably try sending all of my email directly from the on-line hotmail account involved. Perhaps I would even try opening another account to see if the problem persisted and follow this same process. Ultimately I would be likely to consider that somewhere on my computer I had managed to damage or delete or replace some files that were necessary to complete the email task. If the problem could be isolated to Outlook (in one version or another) I would probably in the last desperate stages of analysis completely uninstall Internet Explorer and Outlook files as well as any associated registry settings that might be related to these programs before I completely reinstalled them from scratch... The reason I mention the registry settings deletions is that often reinstallation of previously installed software may migrate incorrect settings and information causing your programs to fail in exactly the same way that you had been trying to eliminate by reinstalling the software in the first place. This migration of faulty settings can take place with the reinstallation of any software (including your operating system. And this is why so many people are fond of the format and start again approach to tedious software problems. But wait!!!! (Ouch!) You won't like this at all. Needless to say, there are a great many of us that should never even consider doing some of the things which I have suggested (and digging in your Windows Registry comes at the top of the list of things you don't want to do if you are one these people.)
But here's a great reference link for help with computer and internet problems in terms of tech support:
http://www.suggestafix.com

[jadison]

Since he isn't using Outlook/OE to send email (atleast that's what he states above) there is no need to uninstall/reinstall any software or alter/delete registry settings. I don't recommend doing this.

Now a few questions for asdxrwh -

A) What OS are you running and is it updated?
-- 1) Do you have an Antivirus utility running, if so is it updated?
B) The emails you send - are they to one or more recipients that you're having this problem?
C) Are you sending attachments along with the emails? If so, what kind and what frequency?
D) What software are they using to check their email?

[[TN] Nathan]

I would check your internet security settings in internet options in your control panel.

Set everything to default.
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