Hotmail SMTP Server: The Right Host for a 1996 Address
If you are hunting for the hotmail smtp server, the answer is that there is no Hotmail-branded server anymore and has not been for over a decade: @hotmail.com addresses send through smtp-mail.outlook.com on port 587 with STARTTLS, the same infrastructure as every Outlook.com mailbox. Your Hotmail address is fully alive - Microsoft never retired the domain - but every Hotmail-era server name you may have written down is dead, and the password behavior changed decisively in 2024.
This guide gives the working settings, explains why three generations of server names float around the internet, and walks through fixing the printers, scanners, and old mail clients that stopped sending when Microsoft turned off password-only login.
The hotmail smtp server address in 2026
The current, documented settings for any @hotmail.com, @hotmail.co.uk, @live.com, @msn.com, or @outlook.com address:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| SMTP server | smtp-mail.outlook.com |
| Port | 587 |
| Encryption | STARTTLS (often labeled "TLS" or "Auto") |
| Username | Your full address, e.g. yourname@hotmail.com |
| Password | An app password (with two-step verification on) - not your normal password, for most apps |
| Incoming (IMAP) | outlook.office365.com, port 993, SSL |
And the graveyard, because these are still copy-pasted from decade-old forum posts:
- smtp.live.com - the Windows Live Hotmail server, deprecated years ago. Some devices limp along on it until they don't; treat any config containing it as broken.
- smtp.hotmail.com - never a real submission server in the modern era; configs citing it were always guesses.
- Port 25 - not offered for authenticated submission. If your device only speaks port 25, it cannot send through Microsoft's consumer servers at all.
One address family, one server. If mail from your Hotmail address fails, the hostname and port above are the first things to verify, and the password is the second - which needs its own section.
One mailbox, three decades of names
The confusion is historical, and knowing the timeline helps you date any instructions you find. Hotmail launched in 1996 and was bought by Microsoft in 1997; it became MSN Hotmail, then Windows Live Hotmail through the 2000s - the smtp.live.com era - and in 2013 Microsoft migrated every account to Outlook.com. The addresses never changed; the servers behind them did, repeatedly.
The practical rule: any settings page, blog post, or device manual that mentions "Live" or "MSN" in a server name predates 2013 and is describing infrastructure that no longer answers. Microsoft's own settings documentation lists only the outlook.com hostnames, and those hostnames serve all the legacy domains equally - a @hotmail.com login on smtp-mail.outlook.com is a first-class citizen, not a compatibility shim.
This also means there is nothing special to migrate. People occasionally ask whether they should convert a Hotmail address to an Outlook address for better sending - the mailbox is already the same product, and the domain in your address changes nothing about servers, limits, or deliverability of your personal mail.
Authentication: the 2024 change that broke every old setup
In September 2024, Microsoft removed basic authentication - plain username-plus-password login - from Outlook.com's consumer mail servers, Hotmail addresses included. Apps now authenticate one of two ways:
- Modern OAuth sign-in, used automatically by current versions of Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, and other maintained clients. You sign in through a Microsoft web prompt; the app never stores your actual password.
- App passwords, for software and devices that only know how to send a static password over SMTP AUTH. These require two-step verification to be enabled on the Microsoft account first.
The symptom of the change is unmistakable: a device or script that sent happily for years suddenly returns 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful, and typing the correct account password more carefully does not help, because the correct account password is exactly what the server now refuses.
To mint an app password: sign in at account.microsoft.com, open Security, turn on Two-step verification if it is off, then under advanced security options choose App passwords and create one. You get a random 16-character string, shown once. Paste it into the device's SMTP password field in place of your real password. One app password per device is good hygiene - revoking a lost scanner's password then breaks nothing else.
Fixing the devices that have been sending since 2015
The population hit hardest by all of the above is hardware: multifunction printers that scan-to-email, NAS boxes mailing status reports, alarm systems, and ancient copies of desktop mail clients, all configured once by someone long gone and untouched since. The repair checklist, in order:
- Replace the hostname. Anything other than smtp-mail.outlook.com gets replaced with it.
- Set port 587 with STARTTLS. Settings labeled "SSL on port 465" or "none on port 25" both fail here; the device must support STARTTLS on 587.
- Swap the password for an app password. Created as above. The username stays the full email address.
- Send a test and read the exact error. A 535 means the credential is still wrong (app password mistyped, or two-step verification not actually enabled). A connection timeout means the network blocks port 587 or the device cannot negotiate TLS.
Step 2 is the one that retires hardware: devices too old to speak STARTTLS with modern TLS versions cannot use Microsoft's consumer servers, full stop. The honest fixes are a firmware update if one exists, or pointing the device at a dedicated SMTP relay service that accepts it - not weakening anything on the Microsoft side, because nothing there can be weakened anymore.
Limits, and what a Hotmail address should not be asked to do
Consumer Outlook.com mailboxes carry consumer-scale sending limits: a daily recipient budget in the low hundreds, per-message recipient caps, and sharply lower unpublished limits for new or recently flagged accounts. The limits exist to keep the shared outbound infrastructure - which your mail shares with hundreds of millions of accounts - off spam blocklists, and Microsoft adjusts them per account based on reputation signals you cannot see.
For a person sending personal mail, the limits are invisible. They bite when a Hotmail address gets drafted into jobs it was never meant for: a small business's invoice run, a club newsletter to four hundred members, an application's password-reset mail. Those workloads trip the daily budget, and worse, they stake delivery of the mail on a consumer account that can be throttled without notice or appeal. Anything automated or bulk belongs on infrastructure built for it - a transactional email service or sending platform with its own authenticated domain - where limits are a published plan parameter and reputation is yours to manage rather than shared with strangers.
The Hotmail address itself is fine for what it is: a personal mailbox with three decades of continuity. Point your devices at smtp-mail.outlook.com over 587, feed them app passwords, and it will keep sending for the next decade too.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SMTP server for Hotmail?
smtp-mail.outlook.com on port 587 with STARTTLS - the same server as Outlook.com, which has hosted all @hotmail.com addresses since 2013. The username is your full email address.
Does smtp.live.com still work for Hotmail?
No - smtp.live.com is the deprecated Windows Live Hotmail server. Any configuration still using it should be updated to smtp-mail.outlook.com on port 587 with STARTTLS.
Why does my Hotmail SMTP login say authentication unsuccessful?
Microsoft removed basic password authentication from Outlook.com servers in September 2024. Apps that cannot use modern OAuth sign-in need an app password, which requires two-step verification to be enabled on the Microsoft account first.
Can I use port 465 with the Hotmail SMTP server?
Microsoft's documented submission port for smtp-mail.outlook.com is 587 with STARTTLS. Devices offering only implicit SSL on 465 or plain port 25 should be reconfigured to 587, or routed through a dedicated SMTP relay if they cannot support it.