Recently I found I couldn't log into my hotmail account because of too many password errors. This lockout ended after a few hours.

 

As I didn't do this, I'm suspecting that someone else was trying to guess mine and tried one too many times.

 

Question: is there anyway I can trace the IP of the offender for this instance, or activate something that will do so in the future? I noted in its password security help screen that MSN hotmail says it "tracks log-in attempts", but I don't know how to get to the information.

 

Any help appreciated!

You will not be able to find the information yourself, however it may be archived somewhere within the Hotmail servers, so if this was a serious problem possibly something could be done. You'd have to contact Hotmail and see, however the chances are an individual who has once had a problem will not be significant enough to start searching for IPs etc. but it's worth a try.

try emailing abuse-at-hotmail.com, and tell them that someone has tried to guess your password.

 

abuse-at-hotmail isnt the right email (apparently its for if you've recieved an abusive email), but i cant find the right email addy anywhere on their site. stoopid hotmail

 

Whoever works in the abuse-at-hotmail place should be able to forward it to the right department.

 

Make sure that your password is good and strong -- something like an 8 didjit non-sensical alphanumeric string, in case they continue to try and guess it.

I use 10 - 15 randomly generated character strings of numbers, and upper and lower case letters