Hotmail problem :(

[indianarchie]

I have a few problems with my hotmail accounts since a few days...

In Internet Explorer 6 (sp2):

With hotmail account 1: When i log into the hotmail site, and access the inbox, everything is fine. When i change the folder to junk mail or to any other folder, it goes back to the login screen, asking to input my username and password. After doing so, i am redirected to my inbox. The process repeats if i again try to access junk mail.

With hotmail account 2: On entering my login id and password i am taken to a page asking me to enter a verification string containing a mix of characters and numbers. On entering the information and clicking the button, instead of going to my inbox, i am taken back to the login page. This process also keeps repeating.

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In Firefox 1.5:

After logging in to my hotmail account, the page that loads is full of code and not my inbox. Refreshing has no effect. (Is this a problem with character encoding? It is set to the default values.)

EDIT: Just found that i am redirected to the login page on opening folders in firefox too. same as prb with account 1 in IE :-(

Thumbnail for Hotmail on Firefox:

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In Internet Explorer, my privacy settings are configured to override automatic cookie handling and to accept session cookies. First and third party cookies are also set to accept.

In Firefox also, cookies are set to be accepted.

I use Zone Alarm Pro 5.5as the firewall. Cookie Control is set to 'Medium' setting. This is set to block 3rd party cookies and remove private header information. The 'Block Session cookies' and 'Block persistent cookies' check boxes are unselected. Mobile code control is off. Adblock is set to 'High'.

I would be grateful if anybody could help, since this problem means Hotmail's webmail is inaccessible to me using both IE and Firefox.

I cannot dump these hotmail accounts, because these accounts are important to me.

[Lazy8]

Similar problems have plagued me lately, using IE6 with identical cookie handling options. Often, messages I mark as spam are never moved from the inbox. Refreshing the page doesn't help--I actually have to log out and back in for the move to complete. Also, the session expiration time appears to vary randomly (<1min-1hour+). I even tried it with neither firewall running, with no improvement.

I've been working around the problem by using Outlook Express as client, but that option is open only when I access it from home. Also, synchronization stalling doesn't make this a much more attractive alternative.

[indianarchie]

I thought this would be an easy issue to solve, especially for MSFN members..but judging from the response, it seems different. Is there anybody who can suggest how to solve the problem?

EDIT: I shut down Zone Alarm Pro, to check whether that would have an effect, and it did work! So i guess the culprit is Zonealarm pro. Any guesses on what the Zonealarm settings should be, to solve the problem?

Edited March 21, 2006 by indianarchie