Access to Hotmail via Outlook and Outlook Express Now Requires a Subscription
If you try to add a Hotmail account to Outlook Express you may notice the following error when you try to synchronize the folders.
********************************************************************************** Hotmail no longer allows email access via Outlook Express for free email accounts.
Please visit http://www.hotmail.com/oe to learn more.
Account: ‘MyAccount (Hotmail)’, Server: ‘http://services.msn.com/svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp’, Protocol: HTTPMail, Server Response: ‘Access to Hotmail via Outlook and Outlook Express now requires a subscription. Please sign up at http://upgrade.msn.com’, Port: 0, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCCF6
Could not connect to Hotmail as MyAccount@hotmail.com.
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MSN Hotmail no longer supports Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV) for free user accounts. Outlook Express uses the DAV interface to connect to Hotmail. Only paid Hotmail accounts will work correctly with Outlook Express. If you configured Outlook Express or Outlook to access your Hotmail account before DAV support was ended, you may still be able to use Outlook Express to open a free Hotmail account. However, eventually Hotmail will no longer support DAV for all free Hotmail accounts.
I’ve been able to use the accounts I’ve added before DAV support was discontinued and they work just fine. Check out Microsoft’s KB article 878462 for more details.