MSN vs. Hotmail e-mail access blocked

[Regina]

Fourth time's the charm?

One reply I've received so far was off-target: this is
NOT a hacker, or a trick; It is not related in any way to
OE; everything on my computer is virus-free and up-to-
date; no cookie clutter; etc. This is driving me nuts.

(Windows XP; MSN 6.0 -- and no, I can't upgrade for
reasons that don't matter here)

Every third or fourth time I log into my MSN (i.e., NOT
every time), after opening five or six e-mails, when I
click to open an e-mail within my MSN e-mail, the
original e-mail is replaced by this an e-mail from
Hotmail (copied below).

Meanwhile, the original text of the e-mail, along with
it's real subject line, IS STILL AVAILABLE IF I open a
non-secure link to Hotmail and read it there, instead of
within MSN e-mail.

An additional problem happens AFTER I open this E-MAIL
WHICH REPLACES THE TRUE E-MAIL: (see bottom)

**********************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Hotmail Staff
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 6:17 AM
To: ***[email protected]
Subject: Please visit hotmail.com

Dear ********

To help protect our users from automatically generated
junk e-mail (or spam), MSN Hotmail periodically asks for
identity verification.

Please go to http://www.hotmail.msn.com and follow the
instructions. It takes only a few minutes and you can
then return to using your Hotmail account.

Thank you for helping us to help reduce your junk e-mail.
Sincerely,
MSN Hotmail Staff

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is an
unmonitored alias.

**********************************************************
**********************************************************

Unfortunately, WHEN I CLICK ON THE LINK, I always get
this screen:

The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had
its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
--------------------------------------------------------
Please try the following:
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make
sure that it is spelled correctly.

Open the g.msn.com home page, and then look for links to
the information you want.
Click the Back button to try another link.
Click Search to look for information on the Internet.
HTTP 400 - Bad Request
Internet Explorer
**********************************************************
**********************************************************

Has this happened to you? Any ideas as to what's going on?

 

[Guest]

Try internet options,programs,make sure msn is listed as e-mail,not
hotmail,you can also access e-mail thru msn messenger if that's what
you have installed.Do you connect thru the internet useing msn explorer,
if not you should use windows messenger 4.7

 

[Regina]

Try internet options,programs,make sure msn is listed

as e-mail,not hotmail,you can also access e-mail thru msn
messenger if that's what you have installed.

Do you connect thru the internet useing msn explorer,if
not you should use windows messenger 4.7

*****************************************
Replies from Regina:

Hi, Andrew!

The defaults set as my internet options are that
Comcast.net is my "home page," and that e-mail opens with
Outlook Express. In other words, *neither* MSN nor
hotmail is set as a default.

Most of the time, I browse using MSN Explorer, and just
click the little envelope at the top of the page to open
my MSN e-mail (addresses which end in "MSN.com"
NOT "hotmail.com").

I only rarely use IE, (as in, when I access a web-page
from within a Comcast e-mail I've opened in OE).

This evening, I had six new e-mails in my box. I deleted
two un-opened; I read and replied to one; then, when I
tried to open the fourth one, I got the bogus,
replacement e-mail (as shown in my original post).

This is really, really weird! And, I've e-
mailed "hotmail support" AGAIN, and have again received
no reply.