"mae" wrote in message
...
He doesn't have a free Hotmail account so it doesn't apply to him.
He has a Msn paid account.
Hotmail has always been web based.
Msn hasn't dropped the PoP3 for the older Msn accounts.
It started Web Dav in Feb 2000.

Thanks for the update and the switchover date. So, to summarize, is the
following correct?

Hotmail becomes available in July 1996.

Microsoft buys Hotmail around December 1997.

On MSN, POP3 access is discontinued after February 2000 and switches to
WebDAV access. MSN "legacy" accounts created before that date continue to
get POP3 access. Accounts created after that date only get WebDAV access.

For Hotmail, POP3 access is discontinued after July 2002 and switches to
WebDAV access.

For Hotmail, Microsoft changes policy in November 2004 to disable WebDAV
access for *new* free Hotmail accounts created after that date. Old
accounts created before that policy change date continue to get WebDAV
access.

Okay, but it seems odd that MSN would've switched from POP3 to WebDAV access
before Hotmail switched. I suppose Microsoft used MSN to test out WebDAV
before foisting it on their Hotmail users. When did MSN push their users
from the MSN mail service to the Hotmail service?

Interesting discussion but all of this history doesn't help the OP get POP3
access to a *new* MSN or Hotmail since it's all WebDAV now (or webmail-only
for free accounts).