Back in April, I mentioned that HTTP access would be disabled as of June 30 and at that time only the Outlook connector with Outlook or Windows Live Mail client could be used as an offline client for Hotmail, MSN, or Live mail.

Due to complaints, Microsoft is delaying the final cut-off for WebDAV support. This means you can continue to use HTTP protocol to read Hotmail in Outlook for at least a few more months (if not years). .

Responding to Customer Feedback – Disabling DAV
http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!5745.entry

The Outlook connector is a much better option than the HTTP protocol, provided you use Outlook 2003 or 2007. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7aad7e6a-931e-438a-950c-5e9ea66322d4&displaylang=en