As of January 14, Windows Live Hotmail Wave 3 supports POP3 technology for a number of markets around the world including United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Microsoft confirmed that, as an integral part of wrapping up the availability of Wave 3, Windows Live Hotmail would therefrom permit users to bridge the online email service with various POP3-enabled clients, either on desktops and laptops, or on mobile devices via Post Office Protocol version 3. “If you don’t see your country or region in this list, never fear, we’ll be rolling POP3 out to more parts of the world later this year,” a member of the Windows Live Hotmail team stated.

“What is POP3? It is a protocol that allows almost any e-mail software program that you’ve installed on your mobile phone or PC to get messages from your e-mail inbox on the web and deliver them in the designated program,” the Hotmail member added.

“Although you always could access Hotmail on your web-enabled mobile phone by going to mobile.live.com, now that Hotmail has POP3, you can get to it more conveniently using the e-mail software on your PC or mobile device such as a Windows Mobile phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry.”

In order to get their emails from Windows Live Hotmail accounts straight into a mail client, users will need to ensure that the right configuration is in place. In this context, there are certain settings that they will have to set manually into their mail software application on the PC or the mobile device (mobile phone).

First off, the POP server needs to be pop3.live.com (port 995), while the SMTP server is smtp.live.com (port 25). Users will have to provide their full Windows Live ID (username@hotmail.com), and then the password that they have associated with the account. They have to bear in mind the fact that the Windows Live Hotmail POP3 service must use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) both with the POP and SMTP connection, as well as take advantage of SMTP authentication. Thus, users will have to specify that POP SSL and Authentication are indeed required, with the same being valid for TLS/SSL.

“In addition to POP3, Microsoft offers additional technologies that can provide you with an even richer experience of your e-mail. Try viewing your Hotmail using Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Office Outlook via the Outlook Connector, or Windows Live for Windows Mobile phone,” the Windows Live Hotmail team member concluded.