MSN 6/7

What is with MSN and their hyping of MSN 6 and 7???

I tried it and just didn't like it.

I don't like having my page-view reduced.
I don't like "not having" Outlook Express.
I don't like the cutsy (AOLish) icons that it has.

I feel that two things are probably happening.
The new system is better for MSN to keep track of my surfing habits...
...and it is a marketing route to compete with AOL.

Anyway I'm now using Outlook Express XP and LOVING it.

I had to call MSN to make them stop pushing the IE6 page in my face everytime I log on. What a pain.

[MarkA]

yes, MSN was always meant to be an online service, never a true ISP. I'd suggest you find a real ISP. It would offer you better service and likely be cheaper

[Brian Rector]

You think that MSN was bad now.....you should have seen the service back when Windows95 came out. The service was basically a "Entertainment Portal" from Microsoft with 'shows'...making the service appear more like a TV station than what it is now. MSN even sponsored the PopMart tour by U2 and even had live webcasts of shows. One show in particular was PopMart Live in Sarajevo, which was broadcasted on a tape delay basis from Microsoft's Redmond, WA servers.

However, this whole entertainment thing didnt work for Microsoft. They decided to become a Web portal, such as Yahoo is right now.

You can actually access everything that MSN offers for free via MSN.com without the need to pay $21.95 per month. The only reason to have it as a subscription is for a backup service (I do have MSN Internet Access only as a backup service in case I cannot connect to my ISP) and for MSN's extra MB Inbox storage.

[Kevin]

When I had MSN back in 1995, I used to love the avatar chats. After that it got progressively worse. Do they still have the avatar chats?

[Brian Rector]

MSN did away with Microsoft Chat about a year ago.

[Brian Rector]

There are rumors that MSN will raise its price when the new MSN8 is released this fall. The price (if there is a price rise) will probably be $23.90 to match America OnLine.

[MarkA]

Crazy. Any good LOCAL ISP will be well under US$20

[Brian Rector]

I ended up finding a tool from Microsoft that will enable MSN Internet Subscribers to get their mail through Outlook Express. You have to list your MSN email address, username, and password on a small form. After its verified, OE is configured for use with your account. There is a catch though: getting the mail is a little slower and there is a bug in getting Hotmail/MSN mail with OE. The bug is called the Doublevision bug, since somehow OE shows each email message twice. The bug, btw, has been in OE for about three years now and still hasnt been fixed.

[Brian Rector]

Here is the link to get MSN Internet Access configured with Outlook Express:

http://supportservices.msn.com/us/oeconfig/

(Warning!! You have to be logged in to your Microsoft Password account for this to work)