Please share this with the Hotmail Development team.
I just fixed the Windows Live Hotmail problem below, but it is still a bug that needs attention.
Here is the problem:
1. I followed the procedures to use the Hotmail aliasing function, so that one address (the aliasing address) was now sending email as though it was a second email address (the aliased address).
2. PROBLEM: In the course of creating the alias, Hotmail alters settings not just in the aliasing account, but also in the aliased account. Yet it does not tell the user that it has altered settings in the aliased account -- the user suspects that all of the settings changes are happening only in the aliasing account. The aliased account -- without the user touching the setting -- is now set to REPLY TO the aliasing address.
3. I later turned the aliasing function OFF in the aliasing account -- where Hotmail has a switch to turn the function off -- and expected the function to be turned off.
4. PROBLEM: I continued to receive email at the aliasing address that was intended for the aliased address. This is because, as just mentioned, the aliased account -- without the user touching the setting -- is still set to REPLY TO the aliasing address.
5. RESOLUTION: By turning off the aliasing function in the aliasing account, you are not fully disabling it! You must also go into the aliased account, and alter the REPLY TO function so that it no longer is set to reply to the aliasing address.
I only noticed that Hotmail had changed the setting because I noticed that the emails I was supposed to be receiving at the aliased account were still listing the aliasing address as the reply-to address. After I turned OFF the aliasing function, it still took me three more weeks to figure out what settings had not reverted.
There are no instructions in the process of setting up or disabling the aliasing function (from within the aliasing account) that tell you that this is another step that is needed (inside the aliased account). When the aliasing function is turned off, it should automatically disable the REPLY TO function in the aliased account as well -- otherwise the user can't tell what the problem is. The only indicator of where the problem lies is not in the aliasing account, but in the aliased account.
Sincerely,
a.k.a.
