Users get back acess to email accounts

Microsoft has fixed a problem, which prevented people accessing their Windows Live accounts.

Yesterday Microsoft confirmed that it was looking into the problem after users worldwide reported problems logging into their accounts. These are used to access Hotmail, the Xbox Live community site and Instant Messenger.

Today it released a statement claiming to have resolved the issue but it would not confirm what caused the problem, or how many users were affected.

A representative for the company said: "Last night, an issue began that caused some consumers worldwide to experience difficulty logging in to their Windows Live ID accounts. This issue has since been resolved and normal operations have been restored to all customers”.

“The issue purely impacted the log-in process for customers and largely did not impact customers who were already logged in. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused consumers”.

Microsoft bought Hotmail in 1998 when it had only nine million users. It is now the most popular free email service with 300 million users, surpassing both Yahoo Mail and Google's Gmail.