Accessing my hotmail.co.uk account through mac mail - deeply frustrated!!!

Question

Hello everyone, and thanks for your patience as I know very similar queries have been answered already in previous discussions.
I have just bought my first mac after years of pc use.
I would love to be able to access my hotmail.co.uk account through mac mail on os x tiger.
However, despite following all previous posts as accurately as I possibly can, this still won't work. For this reason, I have transcribed absolutely everything I enter into the account setup below, to see if anyone can detect why this isn't working.
I have downloaded httpmail (http://www.automagic-software.com/products.php) as suggested on previous posts.
Also as suggested on a previous discussion, I have set mail to run using rosetta, to help deal with any complications I may face using my intel macbook.
My email address is [email protected]
Now, when I go to set up my account on mail, I enter:
PAGE 1: GENERAL INFORMATION
Account type: httpmail
Account description: Hotmail acccount
Full name: Alistair White
Email address: [email protected]
PAGE 2: INCOMING MAIL SERVER
Incoming mail server: www.hotmail.co.uk
Username: awhitetbn
Password: ******
I am then presented with the account summary:
Account description: Hotmail account
Full name: Alistair White
Email address: [email protected]
Username: awhitetbn
Incoming mail server: www.hotmail.co.uk
SSL: off
Outgoing mail server: services.msn.com:awhitetbn
SSL: off
Next page: Conclusion: a new account has been created.
Ok! All seems well, so I send a test email. However, I get the following message:
Cannot send message using the server services.msn.com:awhitetbn
Use the pop-up menu below to try a different outgoing mail server.
However, in the pop-up menu, the only option I have is:
send message using: HTTPmail:awhitetbn
I would dearly love this to work and I sense I am not far from the solution... If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it. Where am I going wrong?
Many many thanks
Alistair White

Answer 1

If you selected the Universal version of the httpmail plugin for download which installs a combination version that is compatible with Intel or PPC Macs , there is no reason to set the Mail.app to run under Rosetta on your Intel Mac.
The sending problem is with your internet service provider and not the Mail.app or the httpmail plugin.
Do you have access to an email account and SMTP server that is provided by your internet service provider used for connecting to the internet and if so, have you used your ISP's email account in the past with an email client on a Windows PC or via webmail access for the account?
Most if not all ISPs now block the use of SMTP servers that are outside of their network or not provided by the ISP on Port 25 which is the default or standard port used for all SMTP servers. Some ISPs allow the use of an authenticated SMTP server only that is outside of their network on Port 25 but some block its use regardless. These restrictions are part of an overall effort to prevent spam emanating from the ISP's domain.
First option to try.
Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts and under the Account Information tab for your Hotmail account preferences at the SMTP server selection, select the Server Settings button below for the Hotmail SMTP server.
Enter 587 in place of 25 in the Server Port field and when finished, select OK to save the changed setting.
If this doesn't work and you have access to an email account and SMTP server provided by your ISP, you can create/access your ISP's account with the Mail.app or at least add your ISP's SMTP server to the Mail.app as an available SMTP server to choose from.
Select/use your ISP's SMTP server to send messages with your Hotmail account and with any email account not provided by your ISP.