Outlook Express 6 and Hotmail

OK guys, help me out here. This problem has been pissing me off a lot lately. I am using Outlook Express 6 on WinXP Home and ZoneAlarm. Every time I try to get my hotmail messages with it, I get the following message:

Unable to poll for new messages on your HTTP server. Account: 'Hotmail', Server: 'http://services.msn.com/svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp', Protocol: HTTPMail, Server Response: 'Service Unavailable', Port: 0, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCCF0

I have tried everything there is to do. I can get my mail through the website, but not OE. Help please!!

your problem is that you do not have your servers set up correctly in OE6. Here what you do....Open OE6....Goto "TOOLS", then Click on "ACCOUNTS"....then click on the tab "ALL" to make sure your in the All range...Then click on the hotmail name and click REMOVE. Now your Hotmail account should be removed from your computer. Click in the right top corner on ADD / MAIL....Type in your Display Name....next....Email Address....next....Select HTTP from the list of incoming mail server....Select HOTMAIL from the mail service provider....next....Type in your Account Name and then Password, check Remember Password....next....Click Finish. Now you should Click on the account name to the left of you in OE6 and download folders from the hotmail server....then click send and recieve....there you are....enjoy

That's exactly how I set it up the first time, nothing. I tried re-doing it a couple of times, still nothing. There are numerous patches and remedies on the net, and I tried them all to no avail.

How about uninstalling and re-installing OE just for the heck of doing it ?
Because red has the correct answer, to my knowledge, this is the only valid option left.
Like sometimes Windows has strange errors, we just off and on, something like that.

Try a lower version of OE if even that doesnt work.

try uninstalling it and then re-installing it. i know from experience that hotmail does not work well with OE6, if at all. so i suggest installing a lower version. i have no problems using it with 5.5. if you still have no luck, contact microsoft technical support (remember, that is if ALL ELSE FAILS).

You said in your fist post in this thread that you're using ZoneAlarm on your box. Are you sure you have allowed Outlook Express to access to hotmail? As Hotmail doesn't use smtp, pop3 or imap (which are the normal ways of connections for an email client) to comunicate but http, maybe your firewall is blocking those communications.
You should check your firewall rules.

Oh yeah, ZoneAlarm is letting it through, I also tried disabling it completely and checking and it still didn't work. I'm about ready to say screw it and just deal with it some other way.

heres an idea, get rid of zone-alarm and get something that doesnt permanently cut off net access when you try to connect to a server through port 7745