hello, please don't use outdated versions either of your operating system nor of the browser. there are dozens of known security vulnerabilities in firefox 8, a substantial amount of them highly critical.

please update your windows xp system to service pack 3 and all the security updates available since then & update firefox and all your plugins. afterwards try to reset firefox and see if this fixes the issue (this will keep your bookmarks and passwords)...

however all of those steps might not work or resolve the underlying issue in case the integrity of your system is already broken, in this case it's probably better to reformat the harddrive and start clean again (you'll have to judge this for yourself, however it's quite likely in case of using a machine connected to the web with no security patches applied)

I found something that seems to work. I added-on blocksite as an add on to Mozilla Firefox and am blocking espn.go.com. That seems to prevent Hotmail from automatically switching to Espn. Probably not the greatest solution - but it works.

I am having the same problem, and my firefox is outdated by ONLY one update, which is the one that is currently being offered. I run windows Vista.

This problem is occurring only when the ESPN ad pops up to the right of the email page. I have refreshed the page, and when the other ads are there the problem does not happen. But as soon as the ESPN ad is there, you are diverted to ESPN.go

Doesn't that sound more like a coding issue? We are not all having this problem because of outdated browsers.

I have clicked on the "Ad Feedback" link to the lower right side of the Hotmail email inbox page and told them of the problem. Perhaps if enough of us do this, they will take heed. Of course, by it being only an issue with Mozilla Firefox and not IE, it may not be a big enough concern to Hotmail.

The ESPN ad seems to pop up more than the other ads, so this isn't a small problem. Most annoying to be unable to access your mail because of an advertisement.

I'm the original poster. Thanks Steffanie, I didn't know about that "feedback" link. But apparently didn't decsribe the problem well. It's not about some ad for espn that pops up or displays incessantly on the right side panel. It's that when I log into hotmail, my inbox dispays for 3 seconds and then my entire browser screen is just redirected to espn. Jaysheth999 above told me to download the Blocksite add on extension and to put the exact url in as a blocked site. It worked, but that probably doesn't resolve the underlying bug or malware that I've got on my system...if indeed that is what's driving this.

Oh, rkennedy, I understood your problem and it is indeed the same thing that is happening to me. I just noticed that it does not happen all of the time. I am redirected to espn.go also, but it happens only when that particular ad is the one which was just displayed on the email page, to the right. Once that ad loads on the email page, your browser takes you to the espn site. When a Sony, Chase bank or whatever else is the ad that pops up, I am not redirected.

That 3 or 4 second delay that you noticed is the seconds that it is taking that espn ad to load. Once it loads, whoop you are sent to espn hell. The ad blocker resolved the problem because it is blocking that ad from loading.

It hasn't happened today ~ but then, I have not had that espn ad to pop up today either. Has it happened to you today, Friday 6-22? Yesterday, when I came searching to see if anyone else was having the problem, I was being re-directed up to 4 times every time I displayed a new email before I finally got a safe ad and was able to read my mail.

I sent 5 notices to Hotmail and asked them to remove or correct the espn ad ~ and as I said, I haven't had the ad today and have not been sent to the espn site.

Hope it's better for you too. I really don't think it is a bug or a malware ~ I think it was the coding in the ad.

Wow Steffanie, thank you. I guess I never realized (because I only had 3 seconds) that the redirection had anything to do with the ad that was showing on the right panel (the ad panel). I never took notice of it. To answer, ... no it has not happened to me today (6/22), but that probably has to do with me installing that Blocksite add on. (I did actually install the update from Firefox 8 to Firefox 12.0 browser, but I don't think that that's the reason.) My guess is that Blocksite kept me from being redirected as of yesterday (6/21). It stinks that espn could develop code that would cause this (because it's underhanded and devious)... but as a web developer, I'm curious why their code works on the mozilla browser and not the microsoft internet explorer browser. I've had parallel postings on microsoft/hotmail forums and it looks like many others have had this experience in the last few days....those that use both Firefox and MSIE, but not experiencing it with MSIE. Still, I'm very hesitant to simply switch back to using only MSIE. I really only use it b/c I need to see how the work that I develop looks on each browser (not always exactly the same.)

Thanks Jaysheth!

I'm seeing a lot of traffic on this issue. Are there any bugs filed? If not, I'll get one in.

Bug filed. Any chance you could try the steps madperson suggested? I'm especially interested in seeing if the same thing happens after you perform the reset firefox steps.

Matt_G, thanks for inquiring but I sort of dropped the issue once I blocked ESPN with Blocksite. However, I realize that doesn't necessarily resolve my internal problem (if any). Since then, as with everyone, I've been caught up with the other minutiae of life.

Understood ;) We are just having trouble reproducing this issue and any extra information we can get will help.

Got it Matt_G. I do know there were other people experiencing this problem. Here's the URL for where I posted the same question on Microsoft/Hotmail Answers. Others there who had this problem may be able to help.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-wlsecurity/hotmail-bug-screen-is-automatically-switching-to/a4b807cd-aa2d-4004-a3a2-87f864a9b7e5

Matt_G and others: I got an email from the Microsoft/Hotmail Answers today. They say they fixed the problem and that the details of the fix are shown on a website. (I guess I can un-Blocksite espn now...haven't been able to go to espn at all in my browser since.) Here is what they sent me:

"..Hi Everyone,

We're already aware of this issue and we apologize of the inconvenience that this has caused you. This issue has now been resolved.

You may also refer to this link 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-email/redirect-to-espn-site/de86815f-9723-43e1-a8b8-9250882ba1e2?page=14

to view the other thread who has the same issue and the response that we provided about the fix.

Thanks!.."

Good to hear it! I've updated the Mozilla bug accordingly. Thanks rkennedy608!