Guest fountainhall Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 I suppose this is kindof linked to the password issue, but tonight i have a totally new problem - to me, at least. About an hour ago, I sent an email to a friend from my main hotmail account (I have 2). I'll call this account No. 1. For a couple of weeks or more, I have been unable to sign off on both No. 1 and No. 2 hotmail accounts. I always get a message asking me to do something or close the browser window. So I'd do the latter. Tonight, within minutes of closing the window, I tried to get on to msn. Not possible. No. 1 account blocked by Windows! No specific reason given. I go through various pages to try to find out how to get help. One page comes up giving the No. 2 email and asks for either a reference number or that I click a box to get a reference number. But I cannot get a similar page with the No. 1 account. I have tried a variety of ways. It is totally impossible to get it. So my accounts are blocked, I have no access to my email addresses - and since 'each' hotmail has the 'other' account as the alternate, I have no way of getting a message back! I am totally infuriated - and clueless. I wonder if anyone has any idea about this problem, and if so how it can be solved to get my accounts back! Quote
Moses Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 I never use Hotmail in past, so I can't give you direct advise... but some ideas: are accounts at Hotmail linked with "Secret question" or phone number? have you antivirus soft installed at your comp? did you made virus check already? Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Thanks, Moses. I have made some progress. Yes, I have a secret question, but it comes on a page that requests a ton of extra detail - like the subject lines of some of the emails! (How do they expect people to remember subject lines?? Weird!) Anyway, I have found out from some other pages that it seems Windows Live has been undergoing some problems tonight. Whether that was related to the issue of blocking my accounts, I don't know. But I have found other pages and managed to change the passwords. That now gets me back into the accounts, at least temporarily. So I am getting as much info out as I can and saving it elsewhere. I use Apples and so avoid most of the main viruses. Yes, I did a check and have the most recent upgrade. But this is the second time I have both encountered problems with hotmail and found it difficult to find solutions. So, I'll probably junk it soon and switch to another service. Quote
TotallyOz Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 What browser are you using with your Apple? And, did you upgrade to Lion? Quote
Guest badcdn Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 I recently changed my Hotmail password and had problems remembering it. I had to go through Hotmail's password recovery process, or whatever Windows Live Team calls it; it was pretty straight forward. I just did it again to verify how it was working for me. I clicked on "Forgot Password" and was prompted to enter my email address. I was then offered two options, 'email a password recovery link to that email address' or 'answer the security question'. I went with the second option and was prompted with the question 'which region do I lived in', and then I was prompted to answer my secret question. After I answered it correctly, I was prompted to enter the new password (twice). The browser was then redirected to the Hotmail Sign-in page where I successfully signed in with the new password. Maybe something happened to your account and they really want to authenticate your id because someone has hacked your Hotmail account or you're being redirected to a hacker site where someone is trying to fish for private data. Two possibilities. Quote
Moses Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 I'll probably junk it soon and switch to another service. I use gmail - it has link with sms verification Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Maybe something happened to your account and they really want to authenticate your id because someone has hacked your Hotmail account or you're being redirected to a hacker site where someone is trying to fish for private data. Thanks badcdn. Now that you mention it, I recall one of the first notifications on screen had something about "hacking" or "being hacked". By then I was in panic mode as the proposed solution was not working at all. Even now with the new passwords, I still am unable to log off because, I am told - "We couldn't sign you out because your browser is blocking cookies. To sign out, close all of your browser windows. To keep this from happening again, change your browser's settings to allow cookies. If you don't know how to do that, see your browser's help." But when I then click to find out how to do that, I have to go through reams of information on different pages and ask several questions. it's so bl--dy complicated! And I have never, ever changed anything to do with cookies on either of my computers - because i have no idea how to do it. So Windows clearly changed something. I mostly use Safari, Michael - occasionally Firefox. I don't have the latest Lion. The desktop has Snow Leopard and I recently had my 4-year old laptop ugraded to that system. I'll wait awhile before upgrading again. Quote
Guest anonone Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 Just as a data point, I have been having trouble since updating to the latest version of Firefox. This is on a PC, not a Mac, but might explain some of your troubles if using Firefox. The issues have been mostly around security certificates / settings / etc., which may be part of your "cookie issue". And I agree, frustrating when these types of things pop up. Quote
