New Hotmail Features: Ten new reasons to love Hotmail

[Hungry Man]

but I don't think gmail allows more than 16 character password........

My current password on Gmail is over 20 characters.

when I setup my gmail.....I had to go through sms activation......

Must have been an old policy. I've never had to do this and I set up an account just today to test.

[woomera]

hotmail service is just awful coming from my experience with them for few years. the only reason i had to stick with their service was cause of my certificates which requires hotmail registration.
and oh god their spam filters are just....yawk

[funkydude]

Originally Posted by woomera

hotmail service is just awful coming from my experience with them for few years. the only reason i had to stick with their service was cause of my certificates which requires hotmail registration.
and oh god their spam filters are just....yawk

Can you elaborate on "horrible"?

Their spam filters are so good that I've got 3 separate POP3 email accounts from 3 different companies tied into my one Hotmail account just to use their spam filters, as all 3 other companies which each used different anti-spam software, just wasn't good enough.

[Wroll]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

LOL I just tried to set up a hotmail account...

"Your password can't be longer than 16 characters."

This is ridiculous. Pass.

Why's that? Do you think you can break something like this: 0N4wHTBiqGEnXRZP?

[Amit]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

My current password on Gmail is over 20 characters.

why don't you try one thing.....write the first 16 characters exactly as password and try to login .........

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

Must have been an old policy. I've never had to do this and I set up an account just today to test.

hmm.......maybe you're right.....old policy is the culprit........

[Amit]

Originally Posted by Wroll

Why's that? Do you think you can break something like this: 0N4wHTBiqGEnXRZP?

the password does not include any signs or digits.........!n#^"jk987d6}[bg

[Creer]

Very nice update from HoTMaiL, I like it.
Now I can change my email management system from folders into labels–categories (more convenient to me) to achieve inbox zero (state of mind)

[Creer]

If we are talking about password cracking... here are calculations from SANS Institute, how long (in days) it takes to crack n-lenght password:

[Daveski17]

Well, apart from the fact that I don't seem to have noticed any of the great changes in Hotmail, it seems pretty reliable to me. I think it has had bad phases in the past (which I don't remember anyhow), but it works fine for me.

[Wroll]

Originally Posted by Creer

If we are talking about password cracking... here are calculations from SANS Institute, how long (in days) it takes to crack n-lenght password:

Attachment 230857

I doubt you can brute force Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or any other decent mail providers.

[noblelord]

I was going to say just that - it doesn't really matter whether your password is 10 or 15 or 200 characters if you're using Hotmail, GMail et al - most webmail providers should lock your account after X failed log-in attempts. If you're really worried about security that much, then you should a) run your own mail server (not that hard to do) and b) encrypt all e-mail traffic to military grade standards. Re Hotmail, I do have an account and I do use it sometimes, but for me not having IMAP access is a bugger - having to use POP3 or ActiveSync aren't always options.

[The Seeker]

Steve Gibson has an excellent site dealing with passwords here.

[Hungry Man]

why don't you try one thing.....write the first 16 characters exactly as password and try to login .........

Tried - doesn't work.

As for password cracking, it takes considerably longer to crack a password via web. But if you have a botnet that changes.

I had one of my older inactive emails get cracked recently and start spamming people on my contact list - it had a 10 character password with no dictionary words.

If they lock a single computer out of an account after failed attempts (like by the IP) the attacker can still make use of a botnet.

My Gmail password is also my youtube password and my google docs password and my Chromebook password and my Sync password. I'm taking 0 chances.

[noblelord]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

Tried - doesn't work.

As for password cracking, it takes considerably longer to crack a password via web. But if you have a botnet that changes.

I had one of my older inactive emails get cracked recently and start spamming people on my contact list - it had a 10 character password with no dictionary words.

If they lock a single computer out of an account after failed attempts (like by the IP) the attacker can still make use of a botnet.

How do you know the e-mail was cracked (i.e. compromised by an attack) as opposed to being compromised via phishing/social engineering/some other method? I still think cracking into a webmail account would be hard - most (I would assume) will block all log-in attempts, regardless of IP address, for a specified time as opposed to just blocking a single IP. I would hope that is the case at least!!

[Boost]

Gmail and gmx mail - never an issue,dont need Hotmail.

[Hungry Man]

Originally Posted by noblelord

How do you know the e-mail was cracked (i.e. compromised by an attack) as opposed to being compromised via phishing/social engineering/some other method? I still think cracking into a webmail account would be hard - most (I would assume) will block all log-in attempts, regardless of IP address, for a specified time as opposed to just blocking a single IP. I would hope that is the case at least!!

I would hope so as well.

I sincerely doubt that it was compromised via phishing/ social engineering since I never use that account - it's not like I could have entered it into somewhere and it was a spoofed phishing page since I never entered it anywhere for months.

[Daveski17]

Originally Posted by Boost

Gmail and gmx mail - never an issue,dont need Hotmail.

GMX is good.

[noblelord]

Originally Posted by Boost

Gmail and gmx mail - never an issue,dont need Hotmail.

Don't get me started on GMX! They blocked my account two weeks ago with no reason given. I've filled out their "help" form countless times, asked them on Twitter and Facebook how to get my account unblocked and...nothing. You can Google for numerous other horror stories.

I would rather trust GMail, Hotmail et al where there is more chance of something being resolved. Their mobile verification thing is also handy, so you should be able to deal with a lockout like that given above.

[Daveski17]

Originally Posted by noblelord

Don't get me started on GMX! They blocked my account two weeks ago with no reason given. I've filled out their "help" form countless times, asked them on Twitter and Facebook how to get my account unblocked and...nothing. You can Google for numerous other horror stories.

Oh dear, I've only had a GMX account recently, it seems quite good. Thanks for the warning.

[NGRhodes]

The Hotmail email is pretty good, but the calendar, tasks and other associated services are nowhere near as good IMHO as what Google offers.

Cheers, Nick

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

Tried - doesn't work.

Try it on a phone.

[Boost]

Originally Posted by Daveski17

GMX is good.

Yup,I've had it for awhile now.

[Daveski17]

Originally Posted by Boost

Yup,I've had it for awhile now.

Well, 'noblelord' would disagree but it seems pretty good to me atm. I'll have to see how it goes.

[noblelord]

Originally Posted by Daveski17

Well, 'noblelord' would disagree but it seems pretty good to me atm. I'll have to see how it goes.

No kidding!

But in all honesty, I've used GMX (mostly) since mid 2008 and found their service, up until very recently, to be great. Their webmail client was good, IMAP support excellent too. Looking back on it however, I now see that it felt like there was nobody else "there" - no customer support agents on their forum, their homepage never ever changed and the whole package is exactly the same as it was in 2008. Compare with Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, Yandex.ru (a good provider!) - they are often making changes and rolling out new features - proving there is an active team behind the service you are using. Always good if you run into problems!

[Boost]

Originally Posted by Daveski17

Well, 'noblelord' would disagree but it seems pretty good to me atm. I'll have to see how it goes.

It's all good,watch 'n football,gettin ready for the holidays.