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Hotmail Cracks Down on Spam
Magmar writes "The team at Microsoft has decided to restrict free users from using Outlook and Outlook Express for managing email. This is going to be reserved for those who will pay for their accounts. The reason given for restricting the WebDav access of Outlook and Outlook Express is to prevent spammers from abusing the free service."
How will keeping people from reading their email help reduce spam? Hotmail already limits you to sending ~100 messages/day.
Gmail is much better. I had originally tried to prove this... but my experiment proved difficult.
I had originally created a recipe at tech-recipes detailing my search for the best spam-blocker. However, the hotmail account enhanced filter blocked all good mail as well. I don't see how people ever used hotmail setup this way.
I had started this experiment by filtering all email to one of my domains and echoing it to all the web email accounts. I could compare the numbers to see who was best. The major problem was the all the web mail people started blocking email from my domain because it looked like I was sending in a lot of email. Geesh.
Is there any easy way to run this experiment?
So, how does limiting reading of e-mail cut spam?
Yes, that's what I'm thinking. I have 3 hotmail accounts and the only reason I use them is because I can log in conveniently from Outlook Express. If I could still use OE, that would be a large incentive to keep them! (plus now instead of 6 megs of storage I have 750!) But if I can't use OE then it's a large incentive to use gmail (which I've mostly switched to anwyay, combined with the IMAP server on my linux box)
I'm sure everyone else has noticed that the reason quoted for doing just about anything in the real world lately has been "to defeat terrorists". In fact, that's why I handed my latest project in late at work. It seems Microsoft is starting a trend to make spammers the cyber-equivalent of the terrorist scapegoat in the real world. This seems to me to be plain and simple that because of GMail, Microsoft can't use a ridiculous amount of storage (2 pitiful megs)as an incentive to pay them money that now they're looking for other features to take away to encourage people to pay up. I have a free Hotmail account and do use the Outlook Express option. It's a nice enough feature with plenty of annoyances, which is why I'm glad I switched my primary email account to Gmail some time ago.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Yeah, I agree. Disallowing Outlook is clearly a move to encourage people to upgrade. They have that right, but if I'm going to pay for e-mail, I'm going to pay for a quality service.
Though I am sure that Microsoft will deny this, when Microsoft purchased Hotmail it was to use as an advertising venue. I.E. they were going to spam you and sell your name to people that spam you. I've open accounts at hotmail and NEVER used them and had them fill with spam. Most of it porn. People got tired of that but without the ability to sell advertising I don't understand why Microsoft bothers.
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Well, no Outlook Express, no reason to use Hotmail over Gmail. Thanks M$ for the impetus I needed.
And too bad your engineers just couldn't figure that spam problem out.
Do you remeber the first time you connected to the internet with a new installed WinXP?
This tiny little wizzard tells you to create a free email account at hotmail.com.
After Joe Average got his tracking cookie from hotmail.com, bcentral.com and passport.com, he now thinks he has to pay to fully use the internet!
(BTW his system is already compromised by a worm because his system is not patched!)
What will the European Antitrust Commision think about this new monopoly?
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
I just hope that Gmail will soon develop pop3 support for Thunderbird. :(
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Why people still use systems like hotmail, where you have to try a billion different combinations before getting a semi-rememberable username, crap storage and crap facilities is beyond me.
I've been using myway.com for ages now, 125mb of storage (more than enough for me), and (most useful to myself) the ability to access other pop accounts (really, really handy for when I'm away from home and need to check my home/work email).
It's also free, has no ads, no pop-ups and is super-quick.
(I'm not affiliated with it in any way, I just love it to bits)
I love it when customers say, "Nah, I'm going to switch." If they do that often enough, companies are forced to provide better service or better prices to all of us. Invisible hand, yadda yadda.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Does gotmail still work on free accounts? =) But seriously. You couldn't make stories this ludicrous up. Microsoft, on their capped-sends-per-day free e-mail service, declares that they want to cut down on spammers, so they eliminate the one feature that most Hotmail lusers love...being able to use it from the comfort of their home, ad-free. Meanwhile, they declared over a month ago that they would upgrade free account sizes [carrot and stick, anyone?], but now, when it comes into effect, only some accounts received the increase in space, and Microsoft cites unexpected capacity utilization. Let me get this straight. Microsoft offers you more space as A) an incentive to not switch services and B) to attract more customers, and then they A) cut off the convenient client interface to Hotmail and B) declare that there have been unexpected usage levels in space, and so have delayed the upgrades. In other words...Microsoft punishes their customers for staying with them and believing them about their upgraded features. Honest. I've seen more financially feasible situations in the Weekly World News.
It's only an insult if it's not true.
Yes I do. They're not quite there yet, but from their help center:
How do I import or access mail from another account in Gmail?
While Gmail doesn't currently offer the ability to import mail and/or directly access mail from another provider, such as through the POP3 protocol, Google believes in helping people access information whenever and however they want to do so. In the future you will be able to access Gmail messages from non-Gmail accounts for free or at a nominal fee.
The page can be found here.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
What's funny with that is I've been having difficulties getting people switching from OE to Thunderbird as their mail client, because they all complained that Thunderbird didn't let them access their Hotmail account and OE was better at this...
I think Microsoft just made a very good marketing move on behalf of Thunderbird... :-D
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Hotmail has truly sucked for about 3 years now. I hate to be the broken record, but gmail isn't just a hip new thing (like, say, Orkut was). It's a MUCH better system for using e-mail. Hotmail's interface is cluttered, it's bogged down with spam, it's limited to IE, it's slow, and it's got ridiculous limits. How could anyone stick with it?
By the way, if anyone wants an invite, post here. I've got 6 to kill.
Haven't used GMail yet, but I'd always prefer to have a local email client anyway. More features, local storage and offline access.
Guess it's finally goodbye to Hotmail. Any other mail services out there that use WebDAV?
One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there
However, one will not make any money sending 100 messages a day as a spammer. Not even close. Not by a factor of 1000. So the limit took care of the spam. They're using spam as a scapegoat to do what they want. Not surprising or creative, but the public'll buy it.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
As I've said many times, unless you're paying for that kind of access you shouldn't be running a MTA to begin with. The days of open and free can no longer exist on the Internet, people. I wish ya'll figure that out, stop bitching about it and move on. When 99.9999999% of the people on Internet are too incompotent to secure a mail server (mail as an example; all others servers can be inserted here) and keep it secure then they absolutely no justification for those ports to be kept open. We're far and away in the minority when it comes to compotent computer administrators. ISPs should not be expected to cater to the advanced skills and desires of 0.0000001 % of their possible customer base. If we want that level of service then we should have to pay for it.
Doesnt this imply that Microsoft wants spammers to pay them, in order to use their service to spam? I can see MS execs now: "Hell, we cant stop them. Lets make money off the bastards!"
People could still just use Hotmail Popper and any POP3 email client (even non-Microsoft ones... Oh, the humanity!) to access their account, and even send messages through it.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs