MSN Forces Outlook POP

Phoenix-D writes: "Qwest.net, my Phoenix-area DSL provider and ISP, recently decided to hand over their ISP buisness to MSN. No huge deal, right? Well, check out this blurb: 'Due to the Microsoft anti-spam initiative, customers are restricted to use their mail services. Therefore, POP3 service is only available when using MSN Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or Microsoft Outlook Express.'" Awesome. Microsoft's Anti-Spam initiative forces POP users to use the primary sender of mail worms.

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[account_deleted]

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Good

[Rombuu]

Awesome. Microsoft's Anti-Spam initiative forces POP users to use the primary sender of mail worms.

Good... maybe that will force people to apply their damn patches so I quit getting their documents in my mailbox.

Re:Fool the system?

[nick_burns]

They probably check to see if you're sending out 300 copies of the latest email worm.

Very, very funny...

[andres32a]

From the faq on MSN-QWEST (the most hillarious thing i have ever read):

"Q: Why should I transition my service to MSN®?

A: There are many reasons why you should transition your service:

With more than 230 million visitors per month, MSN is available in 33 markets and in 17 languages.
(Source: Jupiter MediaMetrixTM Digital Media Report, April 01 for US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland. Data are an aggregation of above listed countries.)
When you upgrade your service, special promotions are available to you.
Quality, reliability and speed.
Technical support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no charge!
Continue to enjoy POP3 e-mail service, with an option to switch to the world's largest Web-based e-mail service, MSN Hotmail®, via MSN Internet Explorer and get up to nine e-mail screen names for you and the rest of your family. (Due to the Microsoft anti-spam initiative, customers are restricted to use their mail services. Therefore, POP3 service is only available when using MSN Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or Microsoft Outlook Express.)
Instant messaging from MSN Messenger Service, the fast growing instant messaging service.
You get more space for your personal Web site from 5 MB to 30 MB.
Easy access to great resources from MSN that help make your life better.
Catch up on the latest news from MSNBC
Listen to your favorite music
Play games
Send instant messages
Create an online photo album for your family
Personalize your home page with weather, sports, news or local events
Shop from the convenience of your home
Invest your money wisely
Search for information
Send online greeting cards
Plan your vacation
Take care of your family's health (This one is amazing)
And, so much more

Re:Very, very funny...

[Muad'Dave]

Continue to enjoy POP3 e-mail service, ...

I would submit that if they're using a proprietary authentication scheme, then is ceases to be POP3 access as advertised. Get your state's Attorney General involved as this is a blatant case of interstate fraud.

New virus for Outlook...?

[tenzig_112]

I found this interesting and more than a little amusing:

http://www.ridiculopathy.com/news_detail.php?displ ay=20011016 [ridiculopathy.com]

Computer science researchers at Carnegie Mellon University announced that they have discovered a security hole in Microsoft Outlook that allows a specific strain of Anthrax to be sent via e-mail.

Even with the "preview attachments" feature disabled, the tainted message creates a physical manifestation of the disease and infects the user.

How limiting access to POP is 'anti-spam':

[montybar]

MS wants access to all of the email that you receive, so that it can read... er, filter out all of the anti-MS propog... er, spam before you even get to... er, have to look at it.

Re:Even funnier...

[FleshWound]

I'm not defending MS here, but if you'll notice, it says "...with best-of-breed MSN content," not "...service." There's a big difference.

Re:SPA(M)

[eldurbarn]

Secure Password Authentication (Microsoft)

Cute acronym :-)

(Or should that be: Oxymoron)

Re:if they really wanted to stop spam

[Robber Baron]

After MS took over it litterally filled the account with junk mail.

Then every other day you get a message saying that your account is too large...

Re:I don't get it...

[drinkypoo]

It's how Gateway.net (a UU.Net based solution like MSN) did it a while back, but without the SAP.

I would argue that if you kept using gateway.net when they did such silly things, then you were the sap. Ditto for this new issue.

Re:Easy way to end this...

[BlowCat]

Send them a snail-mail to MSN stating that you are an employee of a firm that makes a commercial e-mail client that competes with Outlook.

For best results, send it from Malaysia.

Seriously, I think M$ has a good excuse not to read e-mails from anybody but their partners.

Re:Even funnier...

[Noer]

Well, they just said "best-of-breed" - they didn't say just what that breed was. (halfbred? inbred?)

Microsoft Anti-Spam Initiative

[trilucid]

As part of our ongoing effort to reduce junk emails to our loyal customers, the Microsoft abuse management team has created a new "real-time black hole" domain block list. This list is used to check all mail routed through our servers (increased in volume thanks to our new deal with Qwest) for known spammer domain names.

You may be interested to note that leading this list are the following notorious domains. These sites should be avoided for the protection of our revenue stream... errr... customers:

• Netscape.com
• Redhat.com
• Linux.org
• Sun.com
• Apple.com
• Slashdot.org

Additionally, our upcoming Microsoft World Browser will include protection against websites hosted at these domains. Thank you for your cooperation as we work to improve your user experience on the web.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Support

Eyes deceived me

[Fastball]

At first when I read the article title, I thought it said, "MSN Forces Outlook POOP." Hmm...

Re:It could be worse

[Organic_Info]

Surely this is anti-competetive behaviour? A smell a court case a comin'...


Yeah 'cause the last one made loads of difference.

MS anti-span initiative explained

[geekinexile]

I can provide empirical proof that Microsoft is directing all span received to my Hotmail inbox, thus sparing the rest of their users.

I can't wait that long

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine if everyone stopped buying anything ms tomorrow. Microsoft has so much cash, they could be assholes for another 10 years before they would fall. Pure capitalism will in the end.

I don't want to wait that long.