Slashdot Mirror
eBay Retires MS Passport Sign-In
fihzy writes "eBay have announced they will retire Microsoft Passport Sign-In and .NET alerts. The Microsoft Passport Directory of Sites has been discontinued, too. Is Microsoft's Single Sign-On vision edging towards oblivion?"
Did I miss something? Was Microsoft's single sign-on vision ever in danger of becoming main stream?
As a Webmkaster, I would like to have some simple authentication solution, so that the users dont have to register in forums and what not to post. However, the implementation is just unacceptable:
Small sites who would benefit frim such service don't have $10,000 to throw around, and large sites, which do have the money, just will write their own username+password code.
That should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET_Passpo rt
tourettes
Microsoft's Passport sign-on was never a single-entry system, even within Microsoft's sites. Not long ago they started requiring a Passport account to post to the MS support newsgroups, so I reactivated an old Hotmail account. Surprise! Logging on to Passport thru their newsgroups did not get me into Hotmail; I had to enter the Passport account and password individually for each system, whether I entered them sequentially or simultaneously thru two browser windows.
As usual, Microsoft paid as little attention to their proposed standard systems as the rest of the industry. (Remember, Windows Notepad didn't get the Ctrl-O and Ctrl-S shortcuts until Windows 2000, even though other MS programs had them in Windows 3.x.)
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
Bad idea, implementation irrelevant.
Instead of having to compromise each site (presumably on a semi-secure server), have just one single entity provide and verify the virutal avatar... based on data resident on a machine administered so incompetently as to have six types of spyware and four spammer worms on it because the underlying operating system is as secure as swiss cheese.
> Small sites who would benefit frim such service don't have $10,000 to throw around, and large sites, which do have the money, just will write their own username+password code.
I've lucky in that got a good "mind" for (secure!) passwords and have no trouble remembering dozens of them.
But even if I didnt... even if I wrote all my userid/password combinations on Post-It notes, a Post-It note resides in an area with reasonably secure physical access controls. Not so with a network-connected PC and a single-signon application.
Heh, yeah, that's true, Passport tends to lose your authentication cookie more often that a 3-year-old would lose his toys. You have financial losses, I would just get frustrated.
On top of that I used their hotmail account to register for the Passport, since that's their recommended option. I never use Hotmail for my daily webmail, in fact, the only message I have there is a thank-you for signing up. The bozos from hotmail kept threatening me with turning off the account, and they did execute their threats every 90 days. So unless I remember to log in to the Hotmail account, which I never use, I lose my passport, and have to go through easy but still frustrating retrival system at hotmail.
The guys who designed this system are probably competing with Clippy team on who builds the most annoying product.
The thought of a single web-based logon for access to so many different entities kinda scares me... Especially once it spans across companies.
It's sometimes irritating to remember a number of different logons/passwords, and maybe I'm just paranoid, but I prefer the compartmentalization that separate logons brings.