Hotmail and Firefox

May 24, 2005 4:00 PM

When I check Hotmail my emails are deleted automatically after reading them. The shiny, happy people at Hotmail blame this on the Firefox browser. Is there a way to fix this?
posted by Ugandan Discussions to computers & internet (29 answers total)

I have never heard of this - it sounds very strange. What version of FF are you running, and on what OS?
posted by attercoppe at 4:06 PM on May 24, 2005

Are you running Google Web Accelerator? That could be the cause.
posted by waxpancake at 4:06 PM on May 24, 2005

FF 1.0.4.
OSS??- I have no clue.

I'm not running Google Web Accelerator.

Thanks chaps.
posted by Ugandan Discussions at 4:28 PM on May 24, 2005

Not OSS, Operating System. Such as Mac OS X, Windows 98, or Windows XP.
posted by ALongDecember at 4:35 PM on May 24, 2005

Hotmail sucks; email me for a Gmail invite or visit http://isnoop.net/gmail/.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:44 PM on May 24, 2005

Ah ha.

OSS = Window XP.

Optimus, gmail's targeted advertising makes me nervous. I like to maintain at least the illusion of privacy in email....privacy in email- could be the subject of another question/post.

Any suggestions re: the Hotmail conundrum?
posted by Ugandan Discussions at 4:52 PM on May 24, 2005

GMAIL. Go with the emerging evil, rather than with the established evil.
posted by caddis at 4:57 PM on May 24, 2005

"Any suggestions re: the Hotmail conundrum?"

Well, I left hotmail because of similar issues re: disappearing messages and all-around bad administration. No free email is truly private, so you may as well go with a mediocre one rather than a bad one.

Oh, and does Hotmail delete messages when you're using Internet Explorer?
posted by Optimus Chyme at 5:01 PM on May 24, 2005

Hotmail doesn't delete messages when I'm using Internet Explorer. Only with Firefox.
posted by Ugandan Discussions at 5:06 PM on May 24, 2005

Use Internet Explorer to check your email until they fix the problem, it seems like a big enough problem that it will be fixed soon enough.
posted by pwally at 5:13 PM on May 24, 2005

See if big old Mozilla or the new Netscape (or even Opera) have any problems. Or Firefox on a different PC.

(Oh, and start looking for a new email service. I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to be specifically screwing over Firefox users just to make the browser look bad. I doubt it will be fixed without a lawsuit.)
posted by krisjohn at 5:28 PM on May 24, 2005

I wonder if Firefox is prefetching and, in doing so, selecting the "delete" link? I've heard that this has happened with the Google Web Accelerator & Firefox. Maybe your system is just overzealous?

I'd suggest that you try disabling prefetching & see if that helps. According to Firefox, it shouldn't happen unless the links are specially marked, but you never know....
posted by belladonna at 5:38 PM on May 24, 2005

In the past, Microsoft have been caught deliberately hobbling the MSN site in order to make them look crap in Opera & Netscape. Wouldn't be surprised if they did it again.
posted by blag at 5:45 PM on May 24, 2005

I use firefox and hotmail and have not had that or any similar problem--I use two desktops and three laptops (4 XP and 1 2000). I use hotmail-- and MSN as my ISP on the few occasions I must use dial up when traveling--I have found Hotmail extremely reliable and have accessed it throughout Europe and the US. If I can send you any information regarding settings I would be glad to,however, I never had to make any adjustments--just normal installation--good luck
posted by rmhsinc at 5:54 PM on May 24, 2005

it seems like a big enough problem that it will be fixed soon enough. - pwally

*ROTFL*
sorry 'bout that. Normally I'd agree with you. But hotmail is owned by MSN (and MSN = Microsoft = Internet Explorer). They're not very likely to go out of their way to support the competition that's starting to (a tiny bit at a time) eat into their market share.
posted by raedyn at 6:30 PM on May 24, 2005

Okay I was under the impression that its the browsers fault and not hotmail. Firefox is not even close to being 100 percent compliant with every website on the web. So maybe you should get off the floor now.
posted by pwally at 6:55 PM on May 24, 2005

My money also says it's the browser's fault.
posted by mischief at 7:08 PM on May 24, 2005

I use Firefox, currently 1.0.4, and still check my hotmail account once in a while. I've never had the problem you are, but hotmail sometimes hangs deleting messages or changing folders, or sometimes won't even log in. If you're worried about targeted ads, and using hotmail over gmail to avoid them - well, I won't laugh in your face, but start looking at some of the ads hotmail serves you. I know, there's a lot on each page, and not all will apply to you, but for instance, hotmail knows what city I'm in - it's not in my profile, but I get ads for "Sexy Singles" or whatnot "in (my city here)". I don't even notice gmail's ads - in fact I forget they even have any until someone mentions it. Text ads are so much less intrusive than big stupid flashing banners. And speaking of flashing, big stupid flash sidebars, too. Basically the only reason I do continue to check hotmail once a week or so is to be sure I haven't forgotten to change over any newsletters etc to gmail, and make sure all my contacts have switched to sending to my gmail account. Not that I'm pushing gmail in particular here, but you can do better than hotmail. Back in the day it was pretty good, but anymore, it's just not real reliable. I also wouldn't put it past MS to...not necessarily deliberately break it for FF, but definitely not do anything to ensure it works well with it.
posted by attercoppe at 7:39 PM on May 24, 2005

Crap, went on a rant and forgot to say: try uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox. Also, alternately: have you installed or updated any extensions or even themes lately? Maybe roll them back, turn them off, or uninstall them. And/or try the full FF un-/re-install without the extensions/themes, then add them in one at a time to see if one breaks hotmail.
posted by attercoppe at 7:42 PM on May 24, 2005

pwally: Firefox is a hell of a lot more compliant with standards than IE is.
posted by krisjohn at 10:21 PM on May 24, 2005

Hey krisjohn, not only is that just plain false but it has absolutely nothing to do with the question. Why? What is the point of even saying that without at least some documentation? Use this site for what its designed for, and i'll give you a hint: its not for picking fights with people you don't know.
posted by pwally at 10:52 PM on May 24, 2005

Firefox is not even close to being 100 percent compliant with every website on the web.

Leaps and BOUNDS closer to standards compliance to IE. Any sort of rendering issues you see in firefox are generally caused by non-compliant HTML and/or IE specific coding, which is just a symptom of poor design.
posted by rabble at 12:35 AM on May 25, 2005

pwally: Excuse you.

This is a discussion about a problem with a website and Firefox. When *you* give misleading information about the compliance or otherwise of a particular browser you do the original poster no favours.

I will agree, however, that this relevance of this tangent is questionable because of how non-compliant (or IE-specific, if you prefer) Hotmail is.
posted by krisjohn at 12:46 AM on May 25, 2005

In case there was any doubt, pwally doesn't know what he's talking about.
posted by grouse at 1:36 AM on May 25, 2005

Of course, browsers have to be made compatible with websites. Don't you DARE think it should be the other way round
posted by slater at 3:57 AM on May 25, 2005

I use FF+Win XP and have no troubles with Hotmail (knock on wood).

hijack: I also use Gmail, but have experienced an increasing number of glitches in the past month - things don't arrive, even after confirming the correct email address from the sender; many times I get a 'server is busy' message. As my primary email addy, it would be nice for more reliability, even though it's still supposedly in Beta. Any thoughts or inside scoopage, Gmailers?
posted by yoga at 6:04 AM on May 25, 2005

Hey UD, if you install the User Agent Switcher extension and use it to make HM think FF is really IE, does the problem go away? If so, it's at HM's end, and you can just continue to use the UAS workaround. If not, it's probably at yours.

The shiny happy people at my credit union's IT help desk told me for years that the only supported browsers for their creaky old net banking facility were IE and NS4.0, but I regularly use it with Firefox now that I have UAS.

FWIW, I personally loathe and detest HM and vastly prefer Gmail, if for no other reason than that you can easily wire it into any POP3/SMTP mail client. And you really shouldn't ever ever ever consider plaintext email to be more private than a postcard. If you want privacy, encrypt!
posted by flabdablet at 7:33 AM on May 25, 2005

One last thought. If you're really curious, install Ethereal and WinPcap 3.1 beta 4, and compare what actually goes over the wire when you're using Firefox to what happens with IE. Hint: Ethereal's "follow TCP stream" option is really useful for tracing HTTP sessions.
posted by flabdablet at 7:40 AM on May 25, 2005

I'm using FF 1.0.4 for Hotmail & Gmail...no problems with either. It really sounds like a pre-fetching problem...are you using any extensions/plug-ins that do pre-fetching or acceleration?

Firefox is not even close to being 100 percent compliant with every website on the web.

Heh heh...from what I can tell, no browser has achieved this lofty goal :)
posted by bachelor#3 at 1:14 PM on May 25, 2005