My son just got back from uni over the weekend. Has tried to log into his hotmail account and it's been blocked!

He didn't do the register your mobile number thing with them because, at the time of registering, he thought that would just get loads of texts from them that he didn't want.

He doesn't recognise the e-mail they are quoting to send his code to cl*****@hotmail.com, can't get to speak to a human by phone so they say that only think is to log in using the computer that you used to set up the account originally.

Three working desktops in the house and none of these are the right one. The only one left is mothballed upstairs. One very stressed out son brings this computer downstairs and connects it up to his monitor only to find that it is asking for a driver for the dongle - left it at uni 90 miles away.

OK than let's move the computer into the other room so we can plug in direct to the router - no spare cable so have to wait for husband to return from the wholesaler.

Finally looks like we're good to go - let's just hope this is going to work ...