So you get the log-in screen for Hotmail but it won't complete the log-in? I also take it from your posts that there is no error message that appears to give any indication of the nature of a problem, it just doesn't complete the log in? That sounds like it could be an issue with your Hotmail account. Have you tried logging onto your Hotmail account from another computer, say a computer from work? If not, then the first thing to do is try logging in from another computer. If you don't have one anywhere else, go to a public library and use one of theirs and try logging into your Hotmail.
There is no reason why you would be blocked from Hotmail/Live, Google pages and such while other pages (such as this) are accessible unless one of a few things are happening:
1) You don't have access to those pages because of account lock-out (that's why you need to check your ability to access Hotmail from another computer -- to verify that this is not the case).
2) Something is actively blocking access to those pages. This could be one of a few things:
a) ISP settings, which you seem to have eliminated when you indicate that you tried accessing Hotmail from another location than your default location, if in fact that other is connected through a different ISP, although in actual fact you did not indicate that you verified that the other access point you tried was actually connecting via another ISP.
b) Router settings, which you did pretty much eliminate when you tried accessing Hotmail from another location than your default location.
c) Software blocking. This could include the following:
* Add-ins: You seem to have eliminated the likely hood of this when you indicate that you've tried multiple browsers.
* Security software: Family blocking/URL blocking software would cause similar issues across all browsers. If you had installed anything of this nature, this would be a suspicion.
There is one red flag I see amongst all this. You indicate that you have a Macbook Pro running OS X 10.6.7 with membership in these forums showing a start date of March this year, your posts suggest that you recently purchased a Mac, and that your prior posts have disappeared (son't know how far back you were meaning, although I do see one from 3 days ago posted in the Windows section). My question has to do with something you wrote earlier in this thread: "I've tried Firefox, Safari, Opera and Explorer". Uh, would that be Microsoft Internet Explorer? How do you have that installed?