Yea... okay.

[Raist]

Your ISP likely changed your IP address when your modem's lease renewed. That is what typically trips that security mechanic....that, or people logging in from another location that has a different IP address. If more people would heed the security warnings that have been in effect since ~2009 when SE first released the hardware token and bound either a physical token or the free phone app to their account, this would be a non-issue (oh, and when you do add, the token, retain the removal code in a safe place as well--there will come a day when you need it).

As for recovering your hotmail account... they have multiple ways to verify your account, provided you properly filled out your live account profile. I've had to reset my access several times in the past year or so... was able to verify by various methods--secret question, phone, text, and alternate email address. But if you didn't take the time to set up your profile properly in the first place, you may be SOL, don't know since I didn't have to wrestle with an incomplete profile.

The same sort of goes for your SE Account as well... there should be a decent amount of info there for them to use to verify your ownership, provided you've noted some of the key info. I remember back in the day of POL and XI, all I had to do was give them the original sign-in details from when I created the account--I was prompted to keep the info in a safe place in case it was needed for verification in the future, so I did just that and put it on a sticky note in the game's manual. Seem to recall SE beat us over the head about retaining the details about our account years ago when we started using the SE AM as well.

Basically, if you didn't keep accurate records, you can't really fault them for that, especially when the importance is noted during account creation and such.