Unable to Ping Hotmail

I am unable to access my hotmail account. I just tried to Ping www.hotmail.com but got 4 failed replies. I then ran a Tracert but It's failing on hops 13 & 14. This could be related to an issue I had earlier today. I had to ACTIVATE my friends Windows Vista O/S. When I tried to use the phone registration I was unable to do so. I then spoke to an agent, possibly in India, and he advise that they where experiencing network issues. Any on else having issues with accessing Hotmail?