Hotmail log-in problems cause user panic

Millions of Hotmail, Windows Live and MSN customers were left high and dry after another outage meant they were unable to access their inboxes for around two hours.

When users tried to log-in at around 5am yesterday morning, they were presented with a message which read “You don’t have an inbox … yet”.

According to a posting on the Microsoft Live blog, the incorrect message was sent out because of “a network issue that we encountered while doing routine maintenance”.

“We have corrected the problem and you should be able to access your Hotmail and other Windows Live services again now,” the blog continued.

“We apologise for any inconvenience that was caused by this issue, and we thank you for using Windows Live.”

Any users who are still experiencing problems have been asked to contact Windows Live Help.

The news will add to those doubts some users have over the software-as-a-service model.

In February, Gmail suffered a major outage for around three hours after one of the firm’s European data centres overloaded, causing cascading problems through its other data centres.

While these outages are generally few and far between, they can cause anger and panic among the user community, and given their high profile nature, may deter corporates thinking of investing in mission critical web-based services such as email.

However, the SaaS model is nonetheless making steady inroads into the corporate IT sphere.