Q: Suddenly iMail won't play nice with my Hotmail accounts. Help?
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May 17, 2014 5:00 AMby peter_watt,It also sounds like a phishing email. Did you click the link on the email to give all that Microsoft AND Gmail password information? or did you go to your hotmail in a browser and change the paswords there. I don't regongnise any of that app password and gmail authentication stuff.
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May 17, 2014 5:10 AMby Pittsburgh Andy,I agree with what you're saying about google authentication - what I was trying to convey is that I changed my passwords yesterday @hotmail as well as added a few things to each to increase security, such as adding google authentication to both accounts and adding an application pasword to the one account for which that option was offered. I also added 2-step verification that would require add'l authentication for login, to protect my accounts better, since something obviously weird happened the other night where two of my hotmail accounts were seemingly compromised within an hour, which I question but is another topic for another day! And I added a recovery code. I basically went all-in with increasing security on my accounts.
What I noticed was - when I tried to login to hotmail from a new computer, it required various additional checks from above to allow access to hotmail from that computer. Then when my iphone, ipad, and mac mail app needed new passwords, they all acted different and finicky - I'd be typing in the correct passwords that alllowed me to login to hotmail.com, and sometimes they would take, sometimes not. On the iPhone, I used the "app password" rather than my www.hotmail.com password for the one hotmail account, while I used the www.hotmail.com password for the other hotmail account.
Mail on my mac computer wouldn't take *any* password, even if I deleted all password entries for outlook from the Keychain Access, so I deleted 2 hotmail accounts in my mac computer Mail program and restarted - both receive mail and don't chronically ask for a password now, but neither will send mail. Here are my settings for both:
Account Information tab:
For the first hotmail account in my Mail app:
incoming mail server: imap-mail.outlook.com
outgoing mail server: Hotmal (first one available in pull-down menu)
Use only this server: checked
TLS certification: None
Advanced:
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May 17, 2014 5:16 AMby Csound1,Pittsburgh Andy wrote:
I agree with what you're saying about google authentication - what I was trying to convey is that I changed my passwords yesterday @hotmail as well as added a few things to each to increase security, such as adding google authentication to both accounts
For the last time, you can not add Google authentication to a Hotmail account, this statement is meaningless.
I asked for the details of the SMTP server, you have not provided it (Hotmail is not the name of a server)
Click on the box that says Hotmail and select Edit SMTP Server list and post screenshots of both tabs (select the Hotmail account)
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May 17, 2014 5:22 AMby Pittsburgh Andy,Hi, Actually I received two text messages from hotmail alerting me that something was up.
I went to www.hotmail.com, tried to login, and couldn't get into either account - it diverted me to answering some security questions then let me in.
As for the google authentication, here's what my security options look like at hotmail.com (outlook) for the two acounts. Strangely, suddenly I don't see the option for the "application password" that I used for my iPhone mail for the one account. The google authentictor app is from the "Identity Verification Apps". It seems to work well - If I try logging into hotmail.com from a "new" computer, it asks for a randomly generated 6 digit code from my iphone google app.
Protect your account
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May 17, 2014 5:28 AMby Pittsburgh Andy,Hi - Yes you can use google authentication for hotmail. See my above post. THis was new to me also. Under the "Identity Verification Apps" at www.hotmail.com within "Security & password" settings is the option to link your account with a Google authenticator app. Maybe that's new to you as it was to me yesterday?
Screenshot:
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May 17, 2014 5:50 AMby peter_watt,"Yesterday I received a Security Alert from Microsoft that someone may have accessed my two hotmail accounts." just sounds wrong, like the ones from "my bank"
.
OK you did the right thing by going to hotmail in a browser. If the last access was genuinely to hotmail.com then probably no need to change again.
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May 17, 2014 5:54 AMby Pittsburgh Andy,peter - thanks. I have no doubt that you guys helping me are smarter than I am with this stuff (and thus why I'm asking here) but does this sound legit or not to you:
The alerts arrived as texts to my iphone, from "837-401," and each time I changed my passwords yesterday (and just now, just to be safe), I received a confirmation text message from 837-401.
What a hassle this has been! And the mail app on my mac pro still won't work. I was hoping Csound1 could help me but he seemed to have run out of patience??
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May 17, 2014 6:02 AMby Pittsburgh Andy,Since Csound1 wouldn't believe me: iPhones do use the google authenticator app for hotmail:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-two-step-verification-with-your-microsoft- account/
