Problem sending HTML messages with MIME::Lite to Hotmail

Hi there people.

I have a problem on using MIME::Lite (3.01) to send HTML messages. The problem is that no matter what I do I cannot get these messages to display in Hotmail.

Currently the code for sending my HTML message is as follows:

[code]
$msg = MIME::Lite->build(       From    => $from,
                                  Sender  => $acc_reply_email,
                                  To      => $to,
                                  Cc      => $cc,
                                  Bcc     => $bcc,
                                  ReplyTo => $acc_reply_email,
                                  Subject => $subject,
                                  ReturnPath => $acc_reply_email,
                                  Type    => "multipart/related");


  #Attach message data
  $msg->attach(    Type => "text/html",
                   Data => $message,
                   Encoding => "7bit");
[/code]

$message is just a correctly formed HTML document.

Messages sent using this method display perfectly in offline clients such as Outlook, other web based email systems such as Yahoo, my own mail reader at Net my mail.com and other web based email readers like mail2web.

Yet for some reason, although the header information (to, from, subject) is displayed correctly in Hotmail, the message pane is completely blank.

If $msg->attach is used to attach files to the message, these are listed correctly in Hotmail however the message still remains blank.

I have also tried using the following code:

[code]
$msg = MIME::Lite->build(       Type     => "text/html",
                                  Encoding => "7bit",
                                  From    => $from,
                                  Sender  => $from,
                                  To      => $to,
                                  Subject => $subject,
                                  Data    => $message);
[/code]

Again this method works for other clients but the message pane remains blank in Hotmail. I read somewhere a suggestion of calling $msg->scrub before sending the message but this made no difference at all.

Incidentally we also offer the option to send plain text messages using the following code:

[code]
  $msg = MIME::Lite->build(       Type => "text/plain",
                                  From    => $from,
                                  Sender  => $acc_reply_email,
                                  To      => $to,
                                  Cc      => $cc,
                                  Bcc     => $bcc,
                                  ReplyTo => $acc_reply_email,
                                  Subject => $subject,
                                  ReturnPath => $acc_reply_email,
                                  Data    => $message);
[/code]

Plain text messages sent using this method display perfectly in Hotmail (as well as other email clients).

This is getting to be a bit frustrating as every other HTML message from other systems I receive in Hotmail (including some which I’m sure aren’t properly formed) seem to display without any problems yet the messages I’m sending (which I believe to be MIME compliant and properly formed) do not display.

Obviously this is also a problem for the many users there are at Net my mail.com, many of whom I’m sure would like to be able to send HTML messages to Hotmail accounts.

I couldn’t find any reference to this problem in the MIME::Lite POD, nor much useful on Google hence my reason for asking here. If anyone has had this problem and managed to overcome it I’d be very grateful indeed for a solution.

Due to the number of points on offer I’d prefer not to see “use xxx module instead of MIME::Lite” answers. A genuine solution to my problem is what I’m after.

Thanks very much in advance.