Embrace the Butterfly. Review on Hotmail

Brought to you by the software magnate of the Microsoft Corporation, Hotmail.com is the most popular of free web-based e-mail and has been around ever since I can remember. I had my first hotmail address when I was 13 years old and--a few dozen addresses later--use it to this day.

The process of obtaining an address at Hotmail is simple, anyone can easily navigate the pages and have their personalized Hotmail account within minutes--depending on how fast you read and type. There are a series of legal documents you must agree to, including terms of use and privacy, which appear to be legally binding once you add your last name to them and press ''I Agree''.

Once you have an account, you have 2MB of storage space. This is generally quite acceptable, unless you receive a few hundred e-mails a day. There is also a message limit of 1MB, including attachments, not acceptable if you like to send big attachments such as pictures. If you need extra storage, you can choose from four packages of varied sizes starting at $30 a year.

If you exceed your storage limit, Hotmail will automatically delete incoming messages. I suggest saving any large files to your computer and delete all messages once you reply to them.

Hotmail has a very effective junk mail filter, which I recommend everyone apply to their inbox. Since setting it to exclusive, I have not received a single piece of spam to my inbox, thus cutting down the amount of time I spend filtering through and reading e-mail. Only persons on your contact list and safe list will be able to send e-mail directly to your inbox; all others will be sent to the junk mail box.

It also has a built-in virus scan for all incoming e-mail with attachments. Using McAfee virus scanning, Hotmail automatically scans all attachments for viruses and alerts you to them, to protect you against anything that can invade and destroy your computer system.

If you need help with your Hotmail account, or need to contact Hotmail, Microsoft has an open-communication policy. You can troubleshoot using the help button located on the page. You can contact customer service by phone and receive immediate help. If you need to report spam, there are options to report the user or to block them. The reason I mentioned these things is because I want to stress that although Hotmail is free and run by a perceived ''evil'' conglomerate empire, you can still expect great service when you need it, which is more than I can say for the e-mail accounts I received (NOT for free) from my internet service provider.

Hotmail has an esthetically pleasing page. The blue on blue with occasional white is easy on the eyes while maintaining its interest. The links are easy to read and navigate. From your Hotmail account, you can visit the MSN website using your NET.passport, which you receive when you sign up for Hotmail.

I adore the features available for composing e-mail. There are different fonts and colours, as well as jaunty 2-D colourful emoticons to add to your script. In a sidebar, there is a list of e-mail favourites--a list of people who you most likely e-mail all the time. This cuts down on time having to either remember all the e-mail addresses or pressing Contacts, searching for the name, and finding out you just lost everything you took time to write.

Hotmail does have it's problems. There are many times when the website is down, so you can't get into your e-mail. Sometimes the emoticons don't get transferred from the pull-down list to your e-mail. And sometimes (like now) the links are deactivated (replaced by red X's) and you have problems sending e-mail and navigating the site. Also, when choosing a name@hotmail.com, it frequently will tell you that name is already chosen so you might either have to choose something else or add a few numbers.

All in all, I think Hotmail is a good bargain for every consumer of every age, considering it's price--FREE! It's not always reliable, but technology is not always reliable and besides....it's FREE! It's better than Yahoo! Mail (for personal esthetic reasons) and better than your ISP e-mail--because it's FREE!