OK, lots of issues to address here...
Carmelchik:
First of all, free email accounts are just that...they're
free! Don't expect so much from something you're not paying for - it's a waste to throw such fits. Life's too short for that.
With that said, there are other free alternatives that offer much more (mentioned above). The key feature to look for is POP access/forwarding. Smah is right around the mark in why hotmail doesn't offer it, although I can tell you that I created my account sometime in 2003, and it doesn't work for me either. So I don't think there's necessarily a specific cut-off date. Plus, if you search in help it indicates that
none of the free accounts should have it - though there does appear to be a few exceptions!
Also, the reason why online email services typically don't offer mail forwarding is pretty simple really. If the address's inbox you were forwarding to became full, that service would likely bounce the message back to the other account. Then if the one you were forwarding from became full as well, there would be an endless loop of emails being sent back and forth between the two servers, causing a potential DoS (Denial of Service) outage. It's just not worth the risk for a free account, so I have to side with Microsoft and Yahoo! on this one. Before online services were widely offered for free, it
used to be a common feature.
Finally, there's the 250MB upgrade... According to hotmail's help section, not every free email account is upgraded at once. It's something they started several months ago and are still in the process of completing.
cydud3:
Gmail hasn't been released widely to the public yet - still in Beta testing stage. As far as I know, you can only get an account if someone that has one sends you an invitation. It should be available sometime soon. Good news is that it's free, you get a 1GB of space, and will include support for POP forwarding (for all you Outlook users).
[maroon]OK, now everyone breath...and...relax![/maroon][tab]
[tab]
~cdogg
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