My Hotmail (Microsoft Outlook) email address being attacked repeatedly

[ssfc72]

I went into my security settings on my Hotmail (Microsoft Outlook) account and found that my account was being repeatedly every few minutes, trying to be accessed with a wrong password, from locations all over the world.

I didn't look to see how long (many days) this is been going on but I think it has probably been months or years.

I am in the process of trying to go to my important Contacts and changing my email address to another email account, that isn't Outlook.com

When I have done that, I will be deleting my Hotmail email account.

[Jason]

Weird. I would guess it's not a specific attack on you but on hotmail/outlook generally using randomized characters. Unless you have a weak password, I wouldn't worry about it. The same thing could happen with an email address with a popular domain anywhere.

[William]

At least, Hotmail shows all the failed login attempts.  Yahoo/Gmail don't, or if they do, it's buried.

[ssfc72]

It was alarming to me, that my email account was being attacked every few minutes, on a continuing rate.

My password was fairly strong but it has been quite awhile since I changed my password so I just recently changed it and made it longer and stronger.  I usually change all my passwords about once or twice a year.

I have a password manager program (KeepassX), so remembering the new passwords is not a problem.

[buster]

About 10-15 years ago I suddenly had a stream of unending emails on my Hotmail account, and being lazy I deleted it.

It's not very often I see a Hotmail account amongst friends anymore. Many Gmail.

[Jason]

My wife often gets emails directed to her that she never signed up for, things like political campaigns and such usually related to the UK. We think somebody has a nearly identical address and entered hers by mistake. 'Wallwork' is an uncommon (rare?) name here but in the UK it's quite common, and in Australia, oddly.

I have an email address with my own domain like all true geeks. If you know my first and last name, and where I'm from for the suffix, you know the domain name already. I had an address with it I really liked but somehow it got on a spam list. I had to create a new one; what a pain in the ass moving everything over. But gmail is still my main account, for now.

[ssfc72]

That is interesting, Jason.

So, if I wanted to create my own personal email, would I just pay the yearly fee for a Domain name, of my choosing (such as  ssfc72.ca ), and then my email address would work as,  bill.hopkins@ssfc72.ca   ??

Ok, I just did a bit of internet searching and it looks to me that to get my own personal email address, I would first need to buy a domain name that I create, from a domain name provider such as GoDaddy ( cost about $25/yr ), then from my GoDaddy account, I would have to buy an email service, for the email name that I create (cost about $25/yr ).  Total yearly cost would probably be around $57 with the tax.

[William]

MX record in your DNS points to email server.  Actual name doesn't matter.  Remote server looks at "ssfc72.ca" and queries MX record (eg. 11.22.33.44).  Then, it connects to 11.22.33.44 on port 25 or 465, and talks to your email server.

I guess, GoDaddy charges you on both ends (ie. domain and DNS).  You can get "free DNS" and enter the records yourself.

[ssfc72]

Thanks William for the info.

MX record and such is new to me.  I think you may be talking about running a server (APACHE, NgineX ?? )on a home computer?

That may be bit hard for me to get to know, how to do. :-)

[Jason]

I use Digital Ocean as our VPS (Virtual Private Server) provider and Tuta (formerly Tutanota) as my email provider. Tuta told me how to set up the MX records. Tuta has an email client or you can use their online email service. You have to pay for the premium service to use your own domain with it. It's about $24/year. Then we can send encrypted email to each other!

Usually, domain registrars let you edit this information directly or used to. Our website and my domain are registered with Rebel.ca. I edited the MX records there but they point to our webhost who then links up with Tuta. But the last part isn't necessary.

So you need:
1. A domain registrar
2. An email server

That's what Go Daddy is providing. The nice thing about doing that is that they'd probably configure the MX records for you since they're pointing to their own email server. They should let you edit them yourself if you want which is what you'd do if you used an email service or server somewhere else.

William: I don't think Bill's talking about Go Daddy charging for DNS. They're charging for the email service.

You can save money by providing your own email server. But you can't get out of the domain cost. Hosting your email server can be complicated. If you haven't set up a web server before, setting up an email server might be more complexity than you want to deal with. It'd be easier to just rent an email server from Go Daddy or someone else.

[Jason]

One thing that is great about having your domain: it's portable. You're not stuck with Go Daddy if you don't like them later. You can transfer your domain to another registrar and use an email server there or anywhere. I should mention that you can't take your emails with you which could be a problem if you need long retention. As long as you pay a registrar, your domain is yours to take wherever you want.

[Jason]

Thanks William for the info.

MX record and such is new to me.  I think you may be talking about running a server (APACHE, NgineX ?? )on a home computer?

That may be bit hard for me to get to know, how to do. :-)

You don't have to run a web server, only an email server. But if you'd like ssfc72.ca to be a website, then you need to host it yourself, or get a host. Often the registrar providers do this, too. But you could have your domain point to a free website provider through a re-direct.

[ssfc72]

Thanks for the info, Jason.

I do maintain a very basic web page for our Lindsay Amateur Radio Club, so I know how to make changes to the web page index file, when I put new info on the Club webpage, and upload it to the web page Host (QSL.net)

If I do decide to pay for my own Domain Name, so that I can have an email address that is uniquely mine, then for now, I would probably just go with paying GoDaddy to register my Domain Name and paying GoDaddy for hosting my mail server.

I might try sometime later, to run a mail server from a computer, at home. :-)