Send and Receive Your Hotmail messages through Evolution

February 19, 2007 · General ·

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If you want to use you Evolution mail client to send and receive your hotmail messages use the following procedure.

First, make sure your system is up to date. Open up a terminal and type

sudo apt-get update

First You need to install the inet daemon

sudo apt-get install inetutils-inetd

This takes care of all of our dependencies.

Next You need to install pop3 server and hotsmtp

sudo apt-get install hotway hotsmtp

This will install hotway, which allows you to read hotmail e-mails by simulating a POP3 server, and hotsmtp, which allows you to send e-mail through hotmail using SMTP.

By default, however, only hotway gets installed properly to your inet daemon, so let's fix this.

sudo gedit /etc/inetd.conf

Look for the following line

pop3 stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/bin/hotwayd

By default, hotway leaves a copy of each message it downloads on the server but if you don't feel like filling up your hotmail box, change the line to add "-r" to the end, complete line looks like below

pop3 stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/bin/hotwayd -r

And we also need to add a line to get hotsmtpd working, just paste the following line at the bottom of the file

2500 stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/bin/hotsmtpd

This will set the inet daemon to listen to incoming calls on port 2500, and forward the connection to the hotsmtp daemon. Now, save your file, exit gedit, and restart your inetd server using the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/inetutils-inetd restart

If everything is working properly, you'll see the following pop up on your screen

* Restarting internet superserver inetd [ ok ]

Now, close out of your terminal and start up Evolution. It may pop up the first-time use wizard, you can use that if you like. Or, you may have to go to Edit->Preferences and hit the Mail Accounts button on the left. However you choose to do it, here's your information:

Email Address: [email protected] (fill in your normal e-mail address that you use to login to hotmail)

Receive Server type: POP
Server: 127.0.0.1
Username: [email protected] (same as above)
Security: No encryption
Authentication type: Password
(Remember password checkbox is up to you)

Send Server type: SMTP
Server: 127.0.0.1:2500
[X] Server requires authentication (check this box)
Use Secure Connection: No encryption
Authentication Type: PLAIN
Username: [email protected] (same as above)
(Optional Remember password checkbox)

Important Update

Re: HOWTO: Send and Receive Hotmail through Evolution
Installation of hotwayd as described in the first post is no longer needed. It is mentioned earlier in this thread, but that info gets snowed under because every time new posts are added…

Since some time now, you can use the following settings just like any regular POP account:

Code:

Incoming server: pop3.live.com
Username: your_username @hotmail.com
Use secure connection: SSL
Authentication type: password

Outgoing server: smtp.live.com
Server requires authentication: yes
Security: SSL
Authentication type: plain

With these settings, you should be able to get is working without going through the hotway daemon (on 127.0.0.1) …

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157 Comments to “Send and Receive Your Hotmail messages through Evolution”

  1. fakename says:
    September 8, 2007 at 12:20 pm

    This works great and is nice and simple. Have got it to work with evolution on one computer but not on another – don’t know why. There are other mail programs that just as good if not better and they also work with this method:

    Sylpheed
    Sylpheed Claws
    Sylpheed Claws GTK2

    to name but a few. If it doesn’t seem to work in evolution, why not try another program. 🙂

  2. Benjamin M. Mitchell says:
    September 15, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    AWESOME!!!

    Worked Perfectly!!

  3. A Person says:
    September 18, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    After installing apache2 on *buntu, hotaway quits working. I get the following:

    Error while performing operation.
    Could not connect to 127.0.0.1: Connection refused

    I assume that apache has set something that disallows running a pop3 service on *buntu?

  4. Jeremy says:
    September 23, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    “Failed to read a valid greeting from POP server 127.0.0.1”

    this is what I get after successfully running all the other commands
    listed in the tutorial.

    I have Hotmail access on my Windows drives no problem….

    any suggestions….?

    I’ve got all my GMail accounts set up and working on Evolution ,
    the Hotmail accounts aren’t a BIG deal , but I would like to
    have full access to all my accounts….(I have 2 Hotmail accounts)

    Many thanks for your time.

    Jeremy

  5. Jeremy says:
    September 24, 2007 at 1:41 am

    Further to previous post….

    MY bad…..

    there was a little spacing problem (ahem) when I added
    the -r to the line…..

    went back and corrected it and now all works as it should….

    Sorry to have bothered you….LOL!

    thanks

    Jeremy

  6. Lindylex says:
    September 27, 2007 at 7:50 pm

    Thanks for this how to. It works great for Debian Etch too,

    Thanks, Lindylex

  7. yitao says:
    December 12, 2007 at 8:51 am

    Thanks a lot.
    I just successfully receive hotmail by Evolution.
    This article helps me a lot.
    Thanks again.

  8. Dave says:
    December 12, 2007 at 2:51 pm

    Legend.

    Perfect.

    Ta.

  9. LeMeShiaS says:
    April 9, 2008 at 2:10 am

    HELP !! 🙁 …

    i get this msg :

    Unable to connect to POP server 127.0.0.1.
    Error sending password: -ERR Unable to find folder inbox on remote server

    Please enter the POP password for [email protected] on host 127.0.0.1

  10. Wiley says:
    April 10, 2008 at 4:27 am

    It works with Sylpheed on Debian Etch (PPC iBook), but takes around ten seconds to authenticate each time I check my Hotmail account. For comparison, both authentication and retrieval are almost instantaneous with my mail.ru account (POP3), and two .edu IMAP accounts.

    Mind you, it’s not too big a concern–it’s great to be able to check my hotmail in Sylpheed–but the main reason I use Sylpheed to begin with is because it’s lightning-fast.

    Thanks for a very useful and easy-to-follow how-to!

  11. slacka-vt says:
    April 13, 2008 at 8:25 pm

    Thanks, worked great !
    I did have to remove Cyrus because it was using the same port.
    After that, it worked great !
    Thanks a bunch.
    BTW, I’m running hotway with Evolution on a PPC with Ubuntu Hardy Beta
    ~s

  12. Tarek Eldeeb says:
    April 19, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    Perfect ..

    It worked with MSN as well .. mail @ msn . com

    🙂

  13. kris says:
    April 26, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    thanks man, works like a charm!

  14. sonygeek3k says:
    April 27, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Thanks a ton..!!!

    This worked like a charm… The 2nd round of drinks is on me 🙂

  15. cavehomme says:
    April 29, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    Very easy to follow instructions. Worked perfectly, thanks!

    Is there anyway to also access / download user-created folders in the hotmail account other than inbox drafts and sent?

  16. paul says:
    May 2, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    Works like a charm for me, down with windows!

    note: i have to type the first 3 instructions in root console for it to work, and make sure you close all synaptic update wizard

    cheers mate!!

    -linux newbie

  17. Guss says:
    June 9, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    hi all,
    i followed all the instructions above, but i keep on getting this msg when i send/receive
    “Unable to connect to pop server 127.0.0.1.
    Error sending password: -ERR Unable to find folder inbox on remote server”

    I’m new to ubuntu, please help me and tell me what to do in detail..
    thanx

  18. jay says:
    June 9, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Those having “Could not connect to 127.0.0.1: Connection refused” should make sure that inetutils-inetd is installed. I had to do the following for the instructions to work:

    sudo apt-get install inetutils-inetd

    Jay

  19. Guss says:
    June 10, 2008 at 12:34 am

    that was the second step i made after the update as mentioned above, please I’m newbie to linux, please help me !

  20. Guss says:
    June 10, 2008 at 10:31 am

    I’ve done the commands all over again, everything went fine but when i press send/receive i got this message again

    “Unable to connect to POP server 127.0.0.1.
    Error sending password: -ERR Unable to find folder inbox on remote server

    Please enter the POP password for *******@hotmail.com on host 127.0.0.1”

    any idea how this can be fixed?! please help me to fix this.

  21. Marissa says:
    June 16, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    Thank you! That tutorial was awesome, thanks. Made it so much easier to make the linux jump to find out that evolution could in fact download my email the same way outlook did.

  22. Erik says:
    June 28, 2008 at 3:24 am

    This works perfectly, you rock dude

  23. Tim says:
    July 13, 2008 at 11:07 am

    I’ve the same error as Guss.

    “Unable to connect to POP server 127.0.0.1.
    Error sending password: -ERR Unable to find folder inbox on remote server

    Please enter the POP password for *******@hotmail.com on host 127.0.0.1?

    I’m able to sned messages but cannot receive them for some reason. Any help is appericiated.

  24. Ron says:
    July 21, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    Great post, it almost works perfectly… only the inbox is downloaded, not the user created folders within hotmail. Anyone know how to resolve this?

  25. Drock says:
    July 25, 2008 at 2:02 am

    Hey,
    i just made the switch to ubuntu aswell and i followed these instructions – it seemed to work but it is saying that i have to pay for webdav service is there anywa around this ?

  26. suspect says:
    July 28, 2008 at 12:36 am

    It works perfect for me. However, does anyone know how to make it work with another POP server. I have a email that I connect to via POP. Now that I have installed this it is saying it is unable to connect to my other pop server. Any help will be greatly appreciated

  27. Joe says:
    August 30, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Thanks worked great. I believe this only works if you have a paid service.

  28. Peter says:
    September 1, 2008 at 2:40 am

    Wow. Just installed Ubuntu for the first time and i am so impressed. Great community and i wanted to try using evolution for my hotmail acct that i use for personal. Didnt think i could get it to work but your guide was perfectly detailed. Thank you so much from a Ubuntu virgin.
    Peter.

  29. mustafa says:
    September 10, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    heya
    followed all the instructions but still cannot even click on the send/receive button because it is grayed out.

    cannot send or receive any messages..

    any suggestions on how to get evolution up and running with hotmail?

    ta

  30. Croccifixio says:
    September 12, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    Hey Dude! im a first time linux user, i always wanted to get it on my machine and i finaly got my wish! Tahnks for your help, it worked excellent!

    Thanks to all of you guys for helping out the new ubuntu/linux users.

    Peace out.

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