Accessing Hotmail with a Linux email client
 

Ouch, my eyes!

Welcome to LQ, Ken.

There is a program called getwmail. I have not used it, and I think it is a commandline util however.

Thanks for your advice. What's wrong with your eyes? Is it the color I used? I thought green was healthy for your eyes. It's red that's harmful, isn't it?

If it's a command-line based utility, then perhaps it wasn't made for a noob like me. Any other suggestions?

didn't you just use a web browser to get hotmail in
windows? do the same in linux.

No, I configured Outlook Express to access my HTTP (Hotmail) account. Incredimail can access HTTP mail servers as well. Using a web-browser to access HTTP mail is less efficient than using an installed email client, though it is obviously the easiest way. That's why I'm looking for an email client that can access HTTP mail like OE and Incredimail. Any ideas, anybody?

No mail clients can.

There are lots of programs that can intercept and convert Hotmail Mail. A sourceforge.net search will solve your problem. ;)

Ken

If you're using Suse 8.2 it should have a program called Kopete. It is a messenger program. As soon as i logged in with roeddog@hotmail.com it poped up that i had 4 e-mails in my box i clicked and it opened a browser. I don't recall which on tho!

It isn't exactly a mail program but it does notify you when you have new hotmail.

I use this:
http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/
and it works great.
peace

This is a good guide on how to setup your mail client to download email from your hotmail account.

Have a good day!

does anybody know's the Hotmail and Yahoo smtp urls?

i doubt you'll be able to send mail that way.
but if you want, send yourself a mail, and look at
the header, for the smtp server's address.

Hi,

This is how I monitor my hotmail account.
I setup Gotmail to fetch mail from hotmail and deliver it to some local directory.
After that I did set up kmail to use this gotmail directory as a local mailbox. Kmail allows you to specify a precommand to be executed before it checks for mail. This precommand is the call to the gotmail script. No bash scripts, no nothing.
This way, my hotmail appears in my kmail and I never have to visit hotmail again.

Dunno about sending mail though. I never tried that through hotmail smtp.

Cheers,
Jan

just use wat eva email software comes on the your OS cd and configure it. who cares wat u use to read it as long as u get 2 read ur emails... and if nothing works stick to web browser :D

as hemp4fuel suggested, use hotwayd. I installed it in slackware. the included guide is easy to follow. after i've edited /etc/inetd.conf and restarted it, i can then setup evolution to retrieve my hotmail messages.

but by default, no linux email client can retrieve hotmail messages as they don't have the authentication module to support hotmail.

This is fine for hotmail, but will it work reliably with other webmails, such as yahoo, mail.linuxquestions.net, etc?

the original poster is asking for hotmail.

Thanks for all your replies. I'll have to do a bit of research and RTFM I guess. It'd be nice if someone came up with an email client that is able to send/receive messages via Hotmail.

Can Hotmail be accessed through SMTP? If so, does anybody know the address of Hotmail's SMTP incoming and outgoing servers?


Thanks again.

Born4Linux, I appreciate that Ken was asking about Hotmail in his case, but since in his own post he asks about HTTP mail, which I believe can be used as a general term not necessarily pertaining specifically to Hotmail, that my question is perfectly applicable to this discussion, do you not think? Perhaps there are people, other than myself, who would dearly love to access their Webmail from the comfort of their Linux email client - God knows there are enough Webmail services around! I was curious if the solution given above works for Hotmail only (ie the protocol used is specific to Microsoft services and is thus not used in other Webmail services) or whether it would work for others. That OK?

PS. Sorry if I sound a little testy - not been sleeping too well lately. Please bear with me - I shall be going on holiday soon enough!

hotwayd probs
 

[rsimkins@localhost hotwayd]$ rpm -Uvh hotwayd.rpm
error: cannot get exclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Operation not permitted (1)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm

here is my error, though I have a feeling it is a problem relating to my profile, the allowances or something like that. TBH I'm in a world of pain, windows cold turkey. Help me.....:cry:

whenever you get mad a linux for something, go back to
windows for little bit, then you'll remember why you tried
linux in the first place. go back and forth, and decide which
you hate most.
i've seen that error, but i can't remember what it is.

Try executing the RPM as "root" user.

as csekar said, you must be root to install an rpm. the $ by your prompt means you are a normal user. you need superuser privs. type su then enter your password and try again. also, when installing an rpm, use -ivh instead of -Uvh the U option tells rpm to upgrade.

[edit: i just realised that this thread had a second page.. hopefully this message is still relevant]

The hotwayd daemon is OK, but is very limited in functionality. It allows you to access hotmail through the POP3 protocol, which only allows you to read incoming mail. There is no functionality for managing folders, checking folders other than your INBOX (this is a pain if you like to filter your email into seperate folders)), and furthermore I found it to be extremely slow to check e-mails though my single-channel ISDN connection.

Someone has written a JavaMail library called JDAVMail http://sourceforge.net/projects/jdavmail/ which supports most if not all hotmail features... However, I don't know how to integrate this library into any of the major linux email clients such as Ximian Evolution.. does anyone know how to do this?

Anyway, what you probably want is a daemon like hotwayd that allows you to access Hotmail through the IMAP protocol rather than POP3... does anyone know of such a project??? I have been looking for such a project myself with no luck so far....

-surveillance

foxmail has a hotmail claint,but it runs on win.............

This may sound noobie and all, but I changed to root (thanks for the explanation Abel, csekar), the rpm runs and tells me it is already installed. Which I find strange although I have been making so many changes and installs I forget what has worked and what hasn't, so maybe I did get it onto my box. Anyway, my next question is... where did install to (by default) and is there a way of seeing all the processes when the rpm executes?

Thanks in advance :)

I emailed Hotmail technical support a couple of weeks ago asking for any solution to accessing Hotmail with a Linux email client.

I probably shouldn't be surprised that I haven't received a reply yet....

I noticed that XP doesnt allow the user to see the URL of the incoming mail server, but I got this from my 2000 machine:

http://services.msn.com/svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp

Is this what hotwayd uses for incoming mail? Also, how does it send outgoing messages?

(still wondering where hotwayd is and how to configure it now its installed)

scarecrow, hotwayd usually installs to /usr/sbin/ when you use the rpm approach. however, if you're still having problems you can use the tarball approach as outlined in http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/install/

which others have referenced in this thread...

hotwayd giving PASS errors...
 

i configured hotwayd per instructions found at http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/install/

however, when i try to receive mail via evolution, i get a password/username error.

i can telnet into my localhost.localdomain and *.pop3 is listening, but yet this problem remains....

Erm... taking the short-cut, is it possible to access Hotmail on Linux via Outlook Express via Wine?

for the people that have asked, hotmails smtp servers are mx{1,2,3,4}.hotmail.com, i dont see how this could help you get mail though, their pop3 servers are only for paying customers i think, as far as i know they dont have any imap servers.

I've encountered the same kina problem, so I found
(after surfing for quite some time) JoMail, and for me
it works great! I use it to pull 2 Hotmail Accounts
and 1 Yahoo account....