Surely Hotmail must have some extra security features

[coffeeinbed]

Or have I not found them?
I know both Gmail and FB let you know if you're account is being accessed somewhere else, but do Hotmail as well?
Had some missing mails with them and getting ever so sllightly paranoid!

Hotmail are known for just dropping emails. It's also true that email is not a guaranteed delivery mechanism, Even reliable service providers can't guarantee what will happen to your email.

Is there more than just missing emails causing you to worry? If your email is that important to you I would suggest that you move to a competent provider, i.e. someone other than Yahoo or Hotmail.

It's important to remember that with any free service, you're not the one paying for it, so you are getting what you pay for.

Change your password to include upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation, if possible (allowed) ... and have a GM account in reserve so you can set that as contact e-mail address for any payments system or important web sites you use...

Microsoft are a major pain if you do find yourself locked out if a hacker has got into your account. I prefer GMail, personally.

I have done all that, change passwords regularily, and have been phasing Hotmail out.
It's still a hassle though.
thanks!