Vista - Hotmail Maintenance - Unable to Access Mail Pop3, DeltaSync, Web UI

Just a note for informative purposes.
And to give credit where it belongs(thanks to Jennifer who texted me earlier this evening because she was so proud to have equated the error and the web ui failure) instead of resorting to pressing the WLM sync button repeatedly).


Travel forward about 3hours..now I've seen this a few times on different accounts(hotmail, live, msn.com) attempting to receive/send mail in all protocols(Pop3, DeltaSync and the WebUI)

In an email client you may see a messages unable to connect to the server, a timeout or request password prompt(even though correct etc.

A few examples of errors messages seen:

Outlook 03/07
Task xxxxxx - Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC0F) : 'The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server responded: -ERR mailbox could not be opened'
or
Task xxxxxx - Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

Note: I would expect the above errors to be similar if using pop3 in OE or Vista Windows Mail


WLM
Unable to send or receive messages for the xxxxxx account. Windows Live Mail can't connect to the Hotmail server. To send and receive messages in your Hotmail account, go to http://hotmail.live.com on the Web, or try again later.
Server Error: 5102
Server Response: Xfs request 'SyncBinary' failed. Response code: 'Undefined'
Server: 'http://mail.services.live.com/DeltaSync_v2.0.0/Sync.aspx'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x8DE00002


iPod/iPhone
Cannot Get Mail: The username or password of the xxxxxx account is incorrect.


Accessing the web site in IE or Safari yields this message:
We're doing some maintenance to improve the service. We apologize for getting in your way. Please try again in a few minutes. If it's been more than an hour tell us hour, tell us you're still waiting
The 'tell us your waiting' is a link that redirects to a 'Can't Sign In' topic on Hotmail Service Mgr's Blog Solution page
http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions...05&ErrorId=105


It did take more than a hour before functionality was restored <g>, I.e. ymmv.


--
...winston
ms-mvp mail