[Rhisiart]

Amie

My good friend Andy has a free hotmail account. He used to be able to open his hotmail messages on his own computer using Outlook Express (he learnt how to configure POP, SMTP settings etc.). Then one day Hotmail said that he can only do this in the future if he paid an annual fee for his Hotmail account.

Andy decided against this and stuck with his free account. For some years now he has always checked his mail and sent messages using a web browser when on-line.

His ISP is BT Internet, which came with a free email address, but like you, he had been using his Hotmail address for many years and did not want the hassle of having to tell all his mates and other contacts that he had changed to a new address.

May I tell you that Andy is very happy using a web browser to access his mail and has no need for Outlook Express or Mail. He doesn't mind the advertisments he sees on his Hotmail web page and seems to cope with all the endless spam in his intray (although Hotmail's filters seem better these days).

The only thing Andy makes a point of, is to empty the Internet cache if he reads his mail using a public computer (like in an Internet cafe) so that no-one can come along after him and use the back button to read his mail.