In one of your previous columns, you gave advice on setting up Outlook Express to retrieve Hotmail messages. I tried the procedure detailed on the website you referred to (httpmail.webhostme.com/exception.htm), but I still get ‘Bad request, error No CCC31…’ message. I have also approached my ISP who advised me to untick ‘use proxy server’ in favour of ‘use automatic configuration script’ but no joy. Any other thoughts please?

Firstly, let’s narrow down your problem to either a proxy server problem or something else. Go into Internet Explorer > ‘View’ or ‘Tools’ menu (depending on your version of Internet Explorer) > ‘Internet Options’ and click on the ‘Connections’ tab. In the ‘Dial-up Settings’ box, double click your dial-up connection. Your dial-up connection properties box will now appear. Uncheck both ‘Use automatic configuration script’ and ‘Use a proxy server’. Click ‘Ok’ in box windows to close them. Now you are not using a proxy server at all. Go back into Outlook Express and try to retrieve messages from your Hotmail account. A word of caution, until you re-enable your proxy server settings you will not be able to access websites on the Internet.

If it works, the problem is related to the proxy server. Go back into your dial-up connection properties and retick only ‘use a proxy server’ (if you use ‘use automatic configuration script’ you cannot exclude domains from using the proxy server). While still in that window, click the ‘Advanced’ button in the ‘Proxy Server’ area. In the window that appears, in the box under the heading ‘Do not use proxy server for addresses beginning with:’ type: ‘*hotmail*’ (without the quotes but with the asterisks). If there are items already in the box you may need to use a ‘;’ to separate them. Be warned though, by doing this you will not be able to access www.hotmail.com or any sites branching off it. However, if you do need to access hotmail.com, simply remove *hotmail* from the proxy server exclusion list. Outlook Express should now be able to retrieve messages from your Hotmail account.

However, if you disabled the proxy server and you still couldn’t retrieve messages from your Hotmail account, you could try changing the address. If you haven’t already, create an account in Outlook Express for Hotmail in the normal way. Then right-click on ‘Hotmail’ in the left hand pane of Outlook Express and click ‘Properties’. Click the ‘Server’ tab and change the server URL to: oe.hotmail.com/secure/hmdata and, if it isn’t already, disable the proxy server in Internet Explorer as described earlier. If this works, follow the instructions in the second paragraph of this answer to setup your proxy server settings so that you can both access websites and retrieve your Hotmail messages through Outlook Express.

If the above doesn’t work, then I am not too sure on what could be causing the problem. In any case, please make sure that you re-enable your proxy server, otherwise you won’t be able to access websites. You can re-enable your proxy server by going to Internet Explorer > ‘View’ or ‘Tools’ menu (depending on your version of Internet Explorer) > ‘Internet Options’ and click on the ‘Connections’ tab. In the ‘Dial-up Settings’ box, double click your dial-up connection. Your dial-up connection properties box will now appear and check either ‘Use automatic configuration script’ or ‘Use a proxy server’. If you run into trouble doing this or have lost your proxy server settings, contact your ISP and they can talk you through the procedure/provide you with the settings.