Use Hotmail as free Exchange Server

Posted by Stephan Kristyn on January 31st, 2010 / No Comments

I think anyone would agree that since Microsoft took over Hotmail 10 years ago Hotmail has become a pain. Its Webinterface is slow and even worse incompatible with what MS calls 3rd Party Browsers. Heck, you can’t even forward your e-mail to mailboxes outside the Live-Universe, for instance a microsoft.com adress. Duh!

But.. there are features of Hotmail that are truly amazing if you know how to unleash them. Let’s help Hotmail mutate to a quasi Exchange Server that pushes mails as they arrive on your e-mail clients or even your mobile device. In addition we will maintain a server side folder and use a filter rule structure. Read on if you want to know how to unleash Hotmail’s true potential.

1. First we will setup a mobile device to receive push mail
2. Then we integrate any other mailboxes
3. Then we setup a serverside folder and filter structure
4. Finally we setup Outlook or another client to synchronise our Hotmail Account.

1. Enable pushmail to a mobile device

I tried this only with a Windows Mobile smartphone and not on the iPhone yet. With Apple devices one could use Yahoo! or Google as free pushmail option anyway.

-We need a Hotmail/Live Account.
-Open Windows Live on your mobile device
-Enter credentials and set your device to use Live services including Mail
-Click on menu and selection options
-Select Sync Schedule
-Under frequency, select as items arrive.

wm65

2. Integrate any other mailboxes into Hotmail
I wanted to use all my mail accounts with pushmail. Hotmail allows you to write on behalf of that other mailboxes in order for the recepient to recognize you as an user of another mail provider.

English: Add an e-mail account -> Email address /Passwort -> Advanced Options -> Possibly you want to uncheck “This server requires a secure connection (SSL)”

German: E-Mail Konto hinzufügen -> Adresse / Kennwort -> Erweitert -> eventuell Häkchen bei SSL entfernen. Dann Bestätigungsmail abwarten.

3. Filtering and Folderstructure
Best of all Windows Mobile and Outlook will also synchronise the folder structure with Hotmail. Add Hotmail filtering rules and what you get is basically server side filtering. It’s all for free.

English: Options -> More Options -> Customize your mail -> Automatically sort e-mail into folders

German: Optionen -> Weitere Optionen -> E-Mails anpassen -> E-Mails automatisch in Ordner sortieren

4. Outlook Integration
English: Tools -> E-Mail Account Settings -> New -> Others -> Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

German: Extras -> Kontoeinstellungen -> E-Mail-Konten -> Neu -> Andere > Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

Of course this would work with any other (e.g. Open Source) E-Mail Client as well.

Until you can afford your own Exchange Server I would say this is a cost-effective solution to synchronize all of your E-Mail accounts in a centralized way.