Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger were down, reportedly back up

Got Hotmail problems today?

Apparently you’re not alone, as users across the internet are reporting issues logging in to Hotmail and related services like Windows Live Messenger. MSNBC says the issue is resolved now, and that it is unknown how many users were affected although it’s believed that tens of people still using Hotmail were unable to access their accounts this morning.

In a statement, Microsoft said the outage was brief and is now resolved:

“This morning, around 9:30am PST, the Windows Live ID sign-in service experienced a partial outage that caused some customers to not be able to sign into services using Windows Live ID for approximately one hour,” Microsoft said in a statement. “The service is now restored to normal. Microsoft apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused customers.”

Users with login difficulties generally received the same error message:

“We are experiencing higher than normal volume and are therefore unable to service your request at this time.”

The outage was thought to be sparked by Live ID authentification, and Zune and XBox Live users were also affected when the Live.com domain was inaccessible.