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Admins Accuse Microsoft of Hotmail Cap

Posted by samzenpus on from the who-needs-more-than-10-friends dept.

kurmudgeon writes "The Register is fielding reader tips that Hotmail has placed Draconian limits on the number of Hotmail recipients who can receive an email. The first 10 Hotmail addresses included in a mass email go through just fine, according to these reports. But any additional addresses are returned to sender with a message that reads: "552 Too many recipients." (Microsoft denies it has placed any such restriction on the number of senders.) This would appear to be a violation of RFC 2821, which states: "Rejection of messages (for excessive recipients) with fewer than 100 RCPT commands is a violation of this specification."

4 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. I'm in violation too... by Ossifer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... this is a well known anti-spam technique -- it helps thwart dictionary attacks. Hotmail allows 10 recipients, my email server allows at most 1 (one). Of course, my domain only has one email account...

  2. RFCs are not laws by Angst+Badger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This would appear to be a violation of RFC 2821, which states: "Rejection of messages (for excessive recipients) with fewer than 100 RCPT commands is a violation of this specification."

    I love the way the OP makes this sound like a serious criminal violation. Microsoft (or you, or me) is free to violate RFC 2821 till the cows come home. Whether doing so is the best way to handle whatever problem they're trying to address is another matter, but they're not drowning puppies or breaking laws, they're violating voluntary standards, which is not exactly a newsworthy activity for Microsoft.

    --
    Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
    1. Re:RFCs are not laws by glwtta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I love the way the OP makes this sound like a serious criminal violation.

      I love the way you just make shit up. All I got from the summary was that they are violating the RFC, I can't imagine what kind of synaptic misfire would lead anyone to think "criminal" when they read that.

      Is overzealous MS reverse-bashing the in thing now?

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
  3. I'm not TERRIBLY pro-MS, but... by DigitalSorceress · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly, if everyone followed all the RFCs for email and didn't adapt, spam would probably bring everything to a grinding halt. As it is, with countermeasures and counter-countermeasures in an escalating spiral in the "spam wars", I sometimes marvel that email even still works at all.

    Granted, security through obscurity isn't really effective, but why should they bother telling spammers how small to make their batches in order to get things through? Make the bastards work a little bit.

    Wow, I've gotten cynical.

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    The Digital Sorceress