C# checking Hotmail Inbox through HTTP

Question

I am looking for a fast way or a library to check a hotmail inbox using HTTP. Note that it must be through Http and not pop3 or Imap(that is not supported anyway). I need that because I need to connect to several accounts using Http Proxies that is not supported in pop3 sessions. Any kind of help is appreciated.

Thanks buddies =]

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 05 '11 at 13:03

I believe it is currently not possible without simulating what the user would do within a browser. Easiest way to go is to use "VS2010 Test Professional" or "VS2010 Ultimate" abilities to record a browsing session and generate C# code which does the same! See here, it worked for me quite well out-of-the-box and generates readable code you can re-use in your applications

BWT, those seems to be the existing APIs:
- pop3.live.com, port 995 (SSL Required) for incoming mails;
- smtp.live.com, port 25 (no SSL) or 587 (SSL) for sending e-mail;
- Windows Live Messenger Contacts API (legacy) allows accessing the contacts;
- Windows Live Messenger Connect allows doing anything messenger can do;
- Windows Live Messenger Mailbox properties allow to see the number of mails and unread mails;

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '11 at 16:58

There is no official way to read Hotmail using HTTP(S). There used to be DAV but this has been phased out, here is the official statement:

Continuing DAV protocol retirement

Windows Mail & Outlook Connector both use a protocol named DeltaSync that is not documented.

Some people are trying to reverse engineer it like this guy: DeltaSync HU01 decompression code released, but there is asolutely no guarantee this will not evolve - in fact, you can be sure this will evolve :-)

So, you're better off with POP3: Hotmail and MSN Accounts POP3/SMTP Access

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

3

You could use a hidden WebBrowser control. And then use the source code to capture the email titles and all. In that answer I explain how to do it.

I think it's the most easy way to do it.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

Community

1
1

answered Feb 11 '11 at 13:26

Jaime Oro

9,899
8
31
39

Rats, I was just gonna suggest that. – MusiGenesis Feb 11 '11 at 23:00

Stefan Steiger · Answer 4 · 2011-02-02T10:56:23.067

2

You need to reverse-eningeer the DeltaSync protocol. Use the 32-Bit version of MS-Mail and oSpy to capture the SSL packets + Wireshark to capture the http packets.

edited Feb 02 '11 at 10:56

answered Jan 23 '11 at 17:10

Stefan Steiger

78,642
66
377
442

Why complicate things. Use Google Chrome or Firefox+Firebug and take a look at the request/responses. – jgauffin Jan 23 '11 at 17:13
@jgauffin: That will be more complicated than using oSpy + Wireshark. And it won't be easy, and it will certainly take a lot of time. – Stefan Steiger Jan 23 '11 at 17:17
That really complicates stuff. My worst hope is using fiddler and mimicing the requests sent then parsing the response with regex or htmlAgilityPack, but That's time consuming and is not what I am looking for. – dlock Jan 23 '11 at 17:41
@deadlock: I have it partially working :-)) Will notify you if I have it completely working. – Stefan Steiger Feb 02 '11 at 10:55
that will be very nice of you. – dlock Feb 05 '11 at 00:41

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 11 '11 at 19:05

2

This is probably not what you are looking for, but you could tunnel a pop3 connection through http. The down side is that you would need a server somewhere outside your lan that you can connect to. Here is an example: Pop3 over Http

answered Feb 11 '11 at 19:05

M Granja

845
8
26

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 23 '11 at 17:03

1

Not sure if this may help:

Hotmail using C#

answered Jan 23 '11 at 17:03

PMC

4,698
3
37
57

1

This is 3 to 4 years out of date. Did work once, but doesn't work anymore. – Stefan Steiger Jan 24 '11 at 03:10
It doesn't work so there is probably an argument to, however if anyone want wants to bring it back to 0, I don't mind! – PMC Feb 09 '11 at 07:57

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 11 '11 at 14:54

Try looking at WaTiN. It's a framework we use to perform tests on our webapplication, mimicing user interaction. We also use to to communicate with Mailinator to check dummy emails.

I'm pretty sure WaTiN can be of help here, but the downside is that it will actually open a specific browser, so if you can live with that, it's the way to go.

You could also make webrequests and provide the correct post data to perform a login, it's not that difficult really. Afterwards, just parse the content of the response to check if there's email.

You used to be able to use the System.Net.mail namespace and mailclients to connect to the hotmail servers directly, but i'm not sure if hotmail still allows this.

C# checking Hotmail Inbox through HTTP

7 Answers7