Please Help Me Access My Hotmail – I’ve Been Hijacked

I receive frequent requests to recover hijacked email accounts or retrieve the information in them, and/or to reset lost passwords. Here’s my answer:

No.

There is nothing I can do.

But here is what you can do:

1) Contact your email service provider and tell them what has happened. They should have some way of identifying you, (usually a couple of ‘secret questions’ you pre-set up) after which they should be able to reset your password.

(Notice there is no Number 2?)

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Unfortunately this (almost) never works for free accounts. Why? Because these accounts are free and there’s (almost) no customer support. They tell you that up front. You get what you pay for.

Let me be even clearer about that: if you are using a free webmail (online email) service such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., and…

• you forgot or lost your password
• your password does not seem to work
• you forgot the answer to your secret question
• and you did not set up an alternate email address, or you lost access to the alternate email address
• your account has been hijacked by a hacker
• and Support is not responding to your request for help

You are out of luck. I cannot help you – even if you hired me to.

Your only shot at regaining access to your email is via the form the service provides. Which does not always work.

Hotmail: The Windows Live Help Solutions Center is currently your only official support resource for Windows Live Hotmail.
If you think you’ve been hijacked, you can use Windows Live’s own Windows LiveID Account Recovery Help Page. There you’ll be taken through a form where you can prove that you are the rightful owner, and may, hopefully, regain access to the account.

Gmail: try this Gmail Help page first.

Yahoo Mail: try the Sign-in Help Wizard first.

I am not going to bother writing out the instructions for setting up your account, now, so that recovery in the future will be easier, nor tell you to write down the answer to your secret question (your Account settings is where you start), as I may as well be saying “change your oil every 7,500 miles”, or “brush and floss three times a day.” Many are probably reading this because they were not the careful conscientious type, and they were hoping someone else would clean up their mess for them.. (the New American Way.)
All I can say is: use the “recovery form”; fill it out to the best of your ability; and I can wish you good luck.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Troubleshooting Web Mail: JavaScript "Not Installed".

JavaScript Makes The Web Go ‘Round

I received a call for help with an e-mail problem. My client was getting errors when trying to access their webmail (online e-mail, such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail). Which had them quite upset, naturally, but was really no problem at all, and was quite easily fixed with a few clicks of the mouse.

My caller’s errors all referred to JavaScript – which is (short version) a programming language used extensively on the Internet; mostly to make Web pages dynamic and interactive with the viewer. Many websites rely on JavaScript to function, and Gmail and Hotmail do too.

My caller’s computer was suddenly saying that JavaScript was “not installed”, but in reality, all that had happened was it had been somehow inadvertently “disabled” (aka “turned off”), and needed to be switched on again.

Tip of the day: To fix this type of error, enable (or, re-enable) JavaScript in your Web browser.
1) Open Internet Explorer and in the upper right find the gray gear icon “Tools” menu. Click it, and then click on “Internet Options“

2) Now a new window will open. Click on the “Security” tab (top), as shown below.

3) Click the “Custom level…” button.

4) Use the slider to scroll down the list of options until you come to “Active scripting“, as shown below.

5) Click on the “Enable” (or “Prompt“, if you want to be able to choose when to allow JavaScript, and have the ability to deny it) ‘radio’ button, and then click on OK, twice.

6) Close Internet Explorer and then re-launch (aka “Open”) it again.

Now JavaScript (should be) is enabled and functioning and you can surf the Web and access Webmail as you had before. Problem solved!

[note: if you found that JavaScript was already enabled, please see Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*. I have several other how to’s on repairing your browser as well, should you need further guidance. Enter “error”, or “repair” in my Search box.]

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*** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! ***

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The folks at SYNCING.NET have generously donated six Professional Edition licenses to me, to award to my readers. SYNCING.NET is a Business Class program which enables users to sync their Microsoft Outlook data on multiple computers.

To enter the drawing, please see: Software License Giveaway: SYNCING.NET
Enter my current giveaway and (possibly) win a license!

Today’s free download: Trillian Astra
More than three years in the making, Trillian is back with a slight name change and a slew of new features. The chat client now supports Google, MySpace IM, Skype, and Facebook, as well as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC. It  has both POP3 and IMAP e-mail checking.
Trillian now has deep hooks into Facebook and Twitter. It will automatically shorten URLs in your tweets, as well as allow direct messages, re-tweets, and replies. Twitter Trends can show up in your contact list, and you can get tweets to appear in Tooltip form. Facebook features include news feed integration, Facebook Inbox checking, and synchronized message updating in addition to Facebook IM.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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View Multiple Mail Identities in One Browser

It has become quite common practice to have more than one e-mail account — you might use one that came with your ISP service, and you might also have a Webmail account (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail), for example.

Opening each Inbox, so you can monitor them, is a simple matter of opening a new tab (see, Browser tab quick tips for more) and logging in– as long as we’re talking about different services.

If you have more than one “Identity” at a Webmail provider, (two different Gmail accounts, say) you typically are automatically ‘logged out’ of one when you log in to the other from the same computer. This is annoying. Here’s how to fix that behavior.

Tip of the day: Change IE’s settings to allow separate log ins.
As strange it may seem, you need to close Internet Explorer, and then make a change in Folder Options.. this will affect IE as Microsoft consider it to be a part of the operating system.

1) Start >Control Panel >Folder Options (XP user: Start >Settings >)

2) Click on the “View” tab.
3) Scroll down until you see “Launch folder windows in a separate process” and place a check in the checkbox.
4) Click “Apply”, and then “OK”.

That’s it. You’re done. Now you can launch IE and you will be able to log in to each of your Identities/Inboxes, and one will no longer ‘log out’ the other.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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