Hotmail is Hosed! Solutions?

[Worldview2]

I have run into this twice now within five days of each other and wanted to solicit any similar type instances and (most importantly) solutions to the following problem.

Two different computers, both running XP Home have been unable to log on to their respective MS Hotmail accounts. According to the users ~ "One day it just stopped working."

Here are the major troubleshooting similarities;

Both PC's had had vast amounts of spyware on them, which was removed using Spybot-SD, yet they still are unable to log on to Hotmail.
Both PC's are virus free, and have the correct permissions re-established (ie.. Active-X Controls and Cookies.)
Both Hotmail accounts are active and are accessible through other computers.
Neither computer can access any secure protocal (https://).
Neither can log into MSN Messenger
Both are using Dial-up for Internet access

Major troubleshooting Differences:

Different locations (one is a home PC the other is an office PC)
Different Manufacturer (HP and Gateway)
Different ISP's

Anyone have a technical solution?

Thanks!
Worldview2 ~

[glc]

All critical updates done and IE repaired?

[doctorgonzo]

The browser needs to be able to use SSL to log in to a Hotmail account. Go to Tools...Internet Options...Advanced...Security and see that "Use SSL 2.0" and "Use SSL 3.0" are checked.

[Worldview2]

All critical updates have been accomplished. The problem remains. Are there other repair options besides an full IE 6 reinstall?

Thanks GLC

Will check the SSL conditions but we did do a "reset default values" fro IE.

Thanks doctorgonzo

[glc]

If you have IE in add/remove programs and you click add/remove, repair should be an option.

[treespirit]

Actually I think the problem is with msn, they closed down chatrooms to non paying customers and maybe they are doing the same thing with all their services. My hotmail did the same thing, one day it just stopped working. Oh well, I never used it much anyway but maybe some people do.

[davour]

i'd do a reinstall of MSN first, then try a reinstall of IE, if that fails.... well then there is always AOL

[Force Flow]

I've had my hotmail account for almost 2 years now and haven't had any terminating service problems. I've been recieving and sending all of my mail through OE6; that helps with the speed problem a lot (instead of having to waste time loading pages for seperate folders, etc)