Another knock against Hotmail, er, Windows Live Mail

Turns out Hotmail hasn’t even been useful to spammers the past two days.

Microsoft’s Web-based e-mail service, which is most useful for collecting unwanted e-mail from Nigerians and people selling prosthetic private parts, apparently has been inaccessible for thousands of users worldwide.

Some Windows Live Messenger and Live Mail users have been without service for two full days now. That’s too bad as they won’t be able to send their money to those willing to hold it in an offshore account for safekeeping.

Anyways, the outage began early Wednesday morning. Making the situation even more comical is of course Microsoft which had said the problem was fixed. The company issued yet another statement on the topic this afternoon.

“We are aware that some customers may be experiencing difficulty accessing their Windows Live accounts. We’re actively investigating the cause and are working to take the appropriate steps to remedy the situation as rapidly as possible.”

Many of the 80+ million Hotmail users, including spammers, have expressed frustration as Microsoft said it had fixed the problem when in fact it was still working to resolve it.

Yahoo Mail or Gmail anyone?

UPDATE: Hotmail wasn’t the only Web-based e-mail service rendered inoperable by the server gremlins on Wednesday. Apparently, Yahoo Mail was down for a time too. The service is apparently up and running again or so we’re told.