Use Hotmail as free Exchange Server

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

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Now everybody would agree: Since Microsoft took over 10 years ago, Hotmail has become a pain. It’s Webinterface is slow and even worse incompatible with so called 3rd Party Browsers. Heck, you can’t even forward your mail to mailboxes outside the Live-Universe. 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 onto your E-Mail clients and mobile devices. In addition we maintain a server side folder and filter rules structure. Read on if you want to know how to do this.

1. First we will setup your Mobile Device to receive Pushmail
2. Then we integrate your other mailboxes
3. Then we setup a serverside folder and filter structure
4. Finally we setup Outlook (or other client) to synchronise your Hotmail Account.

1. Exchange Substitute & Pushmail to your Mobile Device

I tried this only on my freshly acquired HTC Smartphone and not on the iPhone yet. With Apple Devices you would use Yahoo as free Pushmail option anyway.

-So you’d need a Hotmail/Live Account of course.
-Then 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.

2. Integrate your other Mailboxes into Hotmail
We want to use all your mail accounts with PushMail of course. Hotmail also allows you to write on behalf of that other mailboxes, so the recepient will not recognize you as hotmail user, but as lets say Google Employee. (maybe you want to hide from your google boss that you are using the new HTC HD2 with its enourmously big screen)

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, your Windows Mobile Device and Outlook will also synchronise your folder Structure of Hotmail, once you set it up. Add Hotmail filtering rules and what you get is basically server side filtering automatically synchronizing with your E-Mail client and Mobile Device. Yes that is amazing, because 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.

So to sum it up, until you can afford your own Exchange Server, I would say this is a cost-effective solution to synchronize all of your E-Mail account in a centralized & neatly foldered fashion.