connection to server localhost failed

Check your POP server settings (BTW: i was not aware hotmail allows POP3 access, so please check this upfront), especially the POP server entry for the hotmail account. Most likely the server is either not configured or misconfigured as "localhost".

Can you check those settings?

According to wikipedia, the pop3 access only is available for paying hotmail subscribers.

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail#POP3)

yes I verified my pop server(110 port) setting several times, how do I check to see if the localhost server is set up correctly? Would you suggest I switch to imap.hotmail.com instead of a pop3 server?. and if that is the case what would be the setting currently it's 143 and it's not enabling.

It's not the port setting. It's the servername in the settings dialog.

Thunderbird is connecting to your localhost instead of the microsoft pop server (pop.hotmail.com??).

Chris

To be more elaborate: "localhost" is another name for your own computer. Your own computer does not have a POP server (normally). You should specify the pop server name of micro$oft instead of localhost.

Chris

how is that done? changing the servername in the settings dialog. Thanks.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 robert-desktop

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts iv'e copied and pasted this for more information does the first line look correct i have read that the ::1 is incorrect and doesn't belong there?

I called my isp which is verzion and they confirmed that port 25 is block that i would have to change my smtp server to verizon.net with the same port settings (25) which i did and the local host connection is still refused. help is neede, thanks to all.

Hopefully there is a standard answer for this, as i'm sure this isn't the first time this has occured.

Sit down, breathe and relax.

The stuff your ISP is talking about is that TO your computer no port 25 traffic is allowed. This prevents you from running a mail server, but it never breaks getting your email so forget this information you got from your ISP.

Your hosts file looks file (in fact exactly the same as mine).

You need to go into the account settings for that account (Edit | Account settings and select the subtopic "server settings" under the account).

The name behind "servername" should NOT be localhost (I have the feeling this is your problem as thunderbird reports problems connecting to "localhost") but something like pop.hotmail.com or something.

Please check this....

O.K. I start started to breathe, I changed all my sub folder settings to pop.mail.com with the smtp server being smtp.mail.com and my hotmail account to pop.hotmail.com and the smtp server settings to smtp.hotmail.com. the message now reads failed to connect to server pop.hotmail.com. one message read connection timed out. Thanks for your help as things look a little better.

Did some research, found the article attached beneath.

Apparently the correct settings are:

 * POP: pop3.live.com (port 995)
 * SMTP: smtp.live.com (port 25)

But again, according to the info beneath, this service is for paying customers only...

------------------------------ START INFO
starting this week Hotmail Plus users ($19.95 a year) will be able to use POP access from any device. In the interest of transparency though I want to be clear that we have plans to offer POP to all users (all premium and free) but we aren’t ready to do that yet. I can’t comment on a timeframe for when free users will get POP, but we hope to do so within the next 12 months.

If you do take advantage of this premium feature and sign up for Hotmail plus you’ll also get an ad-free experience, more storage, larger attachment support, and a non expiring account.

Our POP service requires that you use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with the POP and SMTP connection and use SMTP authentication. This is to ensure that your email address and password are not subject to tampering. The settings are the following:

    * POP: pop3.live.com (port 995)
    * SMTP: smtp.live.com (port 25)
          o Note: make sure you check the box that indicates that your outgoing server requires authentication (in most mail clients this is not checked by default).
    * Username: your full email address
    * Password: your Windows Live ID password
------------------------------ END INFO

Chris I have changed my settings to the above, is that the same for mail.com account . I will try it and let you know. Now my message is saying authentication failed (password). mailserver responded password failed: could this be related to the problem you listed. Sending of password did not succeed. On my mail.com account the settings are as follows pop.mail.com port settings 995 with ssl enabled and smtp is smtp.mail.com and port 25 and ssl are enabled also. that say's connection to pop.mail.com server failed connection timed out.

O.K. Chris your right about hotmail not giving free access to their pop3 server for none paying members. On hotmail in their options you can forward e-mail to their ending domain names, when i tried to set up my gmail account it says only to msn and such domain names are acceptable. so that is a dead end and alot of time wasted. is mail.com the same way, the message i get is connection to pop.mail server timed out?.

What's funny when i was watching a tutorial on setting up thundebird the gentleman set up yahoo, hotmail and gmail with no problems with all the original port settings except for gmail which is 995 and 587 on all others it was 110 and 25 respectively.

If you want my opinion (I'll give it anyway :-)):

I have used gmail (google mail) for ages now and am satisfied with it. I can use the web interface when on the road, at home I use the IMAP interface (instead of POP, imap is somewhat like POP except it can access the messages online like a "database" and is a bit newer technology). Pop is supported as well by the way.

I see less and less hotmail addresses nowadays, would this lack of POP/IMAP support be the cause?

On the tutorials: In the beautiful world of tutorials, all attempts always succeed in one try :-)

Good luck with your further attempts (or maybe your final steps away from hotmail)!

Regards,

Chris

Thanks Chris could you possibly comment on my mail.com account. Should i switch the mail.com account settings to imap.mail.com?. my imap is not activated in thundebird i guess it's because of the port settings of 443. This is just another alternative to my mail.com which is a pretty good site i must say. I totally agree with you on the tutorials. in overall I just wanted to set up the basics of my system apps and then get moving to the more serious stuff. I will leave a message on the hotmail account stating that i've changed account and here is my new e-mail address since i can't forward it anymore. Thanks for your help and I wish the answer came that simply for me i the beginning but that goes with the trial and error part.

If the mail.com service supports an IMAP service you can always try it (lookup the correct settings for it though!).

In the end IMAP does the same as POP, only (from a technical point of view) it's better...

Good luck!

Chris