Q: how can I set up my hotmail account with mail?

http://email.about.com/od/macosxmailtips/ss/wt042503.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Sync-a-Hotmail-Account-on-an-iPhone

Hotmail has effectively been superseded by Outlook.com, originally only POP3 was possible from a Mac, I believe IMAP is now possible.

See http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-osend/how-to-set-up- mac-mail-to-sync-your-outlookcom/afdfe98…

also http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/outlook/send-receive-from-app

I believe one can use the Outlook.com servers with an old Hotmail address.

Note: It does not appear possible to setup Contacts and Calendar to link to Outlook.com/Hotmail.com, from that perspective a Gmail account is superior.

This Apple web page will show you exactly what to enter in each field to get hotmail to work. You must enter the email address you want to set up (or one like it) but Apple does not sell it or use it to send you anything.

https://www.apple.com/support/mail-settings-lookup/

Note: If you are trying to set this up on an iDevice rather than a Mac, you need to make a deliberate mistake in entering your password to get an additional info screen where you can specify IMAP.