I know that recently Microsoft and/or Hotmail. have implemented a rule that
new hotmail accounts will no longer be available for remote downloads.  I may
not have termed that correctly but what it boils down to is that you cannot
use a program like Outlook Express to access your hotmail account any longer.
This was not supposed to affect long term users of Hotmail accounts who were
already accessing it through downloading programs though. Not sure where you
fit in here...hope that this helps some :o}