Just like any other web site, Windows Live Hotmail can be blocked by a school or work administrator. You can always check your e-mail when you get home. But if you must know how you can unblock Hotmail just for the sake of it, here are some things you can try.
How Can I Unblock Hotmail?
Hotmail has an IP address just like all other websites on the Internet. For your school or office to block it, all it has to do is list the Hotmail IP in a blacklist and that’s it. All computers in the system will be prevented from accessing it. Here is how you can unblock Hotmail!
Unblocking Hotmail Method 1: Use a Proxy Server
A proxy server is another computer you use to pass through on the way to a web site. When you use it, the proxy server will “carry” the web site to you under its own IP. If your school or office network doesn’t have the proxy server’s IP on their blacklist, they won’t block it. You will be able to unblock Hotmail by accessing it via the proxy server.
Free proxy servers are risky to use since you don’t know who runs the server or what they do with your data. You can subscribe to a members-only proxy server.
Unblocking Hotmail Method 2: Mail Forwarding
Your network may have blocked Hotmail, but do you still have access to another other e-mail account? If you do, you can forward your incoming mail in Hotmail to it. To do this you need either Windows Live Hotmail Plus or a mail forwarding program like Mail Forward.
Windows Live Hotmail Plus is a premium upgrade from the free Hotmail. Go to the options menu and then the more options sub menu. In the manage account area, select mail forwarding. Enter the e-mail address you want to forward your Hotmail mail to.
If you don’t want to upgrade to Windows Live Hotmail Plus just so you can unblock Hotmail, try Mail Forward. This program lets you forward mail from multiple mail accounts to one or more destination address. For this to work, you must have one e-mail that’s not blocked by the network.
Unblocking Hotmail Warnings
Just because you can unblock Hotmail doesn’t mean you should. Administrators of school and office networks have good reason to block Hotmail and other free e-mail sites. They can be a gateway for viruses, worms and trojans to enter the system. A malicious virus can do incalculable damage to a network, so it is often for your own good that Hotmail gets blocked sometimes.
