I'm looking for a program that will allow me to check my hotmail acount, i.e. it will let me know if I have new mail. This way I don't have to log on and check it constantly. Thanks for the help.

not sure if this is possible. here is a question in the Mozilla Thunderbird FAQ...

Can I access my Netscape WebMail or Hotmail accounts through Thunderbird?
No. Netscape WebMail and Hotmail use proprietary protocols. To access WebMail directly through an e-mail client requires you to use Netscape 6+ with AIM; to do so with Hotmail requires either Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. Of course, you can access your WebMail account on the Web at http://webmail.netscape.com/, or Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com/.

The only way to do it i guess would be to have a script that can navigate the web automatically and try to check your hotmail, but i have no idea how this would work. If anybody knows, i would love to ear about it as well.

hotwayd/hotsmtpd lets you use Hotmail using POP/SMTP from your mail program.

Thanks for the quick replies I will try that out.

There is a plugin for Thunderbird, not sure how well it works though...
http://webmail.mozdev.org/index.html