TechSonic
02-25-2004, 03:07 PM
New filters that go into effect Monday could bar non-Microsoft email clients.
By Maria Godoy, Tech Live
New anti-spam filters that kick into effect Monday will make it harder for MSN Internet access subscribers to use email software made by Microsoft rivals.
In an email to MSN's 5 million subscribers, Microsoft said it is implementing the new filters to make it harder for spammers to harvest an MSN email account and use the address to send out junk email.
Under the new system, MSN's outgoing email servers will authenticate the email account and password for every MSN email address. If MSN subscribers do not update their email settings by Monday, they will lose the ability to send email through their MSN accounts, the email said.
Microsoft told users in the letter that it is implementing the email enhancements "to help you protect your MSN account from unsolicited commercial email." But a side note to the email is sure to cause concern among those who accuse Microsoft of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain its software supremacy.
"MSN does not support email software other than Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express," Microsoft told MSN subscribers. "If you are using an application other than Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you will no longer be able to send email once we have deployed our new email system."
But this is nothing new, a Microsoft spokesman told TechTV.
"This is all about using our own proprietary authentication system that was started we when launched the service in 95," said Mark Wayne, MSN product manager. "Other email clients were not supported then and never have been."
"We are not changing the game midstream," he added. "We've never supported other email clients and we don't have plans to now."
However, when TechTV called MSN's tech support, we were told the passage in question was a bit misleading.
According to MSN tech support, subscribers will still be able to use non-Microsoft email clients -- such as Eudora, Qualcomm's popular free email software -- with their MSN email accounts, as long as the software in question can be configured to work with outgoing mail server authentication. As was previously the case, MSN will not provide tech support for subscribers who use non-Microsoft email software.
If the email client in question does not support this security feature, subscribers will have to use Outlook or Outlook Express, MSN tech support said.
So why did Microsoft's missive to MSN subscribers tell them they would no longer be able to use applications other than Outlook or Outlook Express when this was not the case? According to MSN tech support, most subscribers aren't very tech savvy and would be "confused" by talk about mail server authentication.
However, according to Joseph Toth, technical support supervisor for Eudora, this statement from MSN tech support is also misleading.
"Microsoft is very comfortable with making it so people can't use other company's products with their servers," Toth said. "Because of proprietary authentication processes they have in place, Eudora doesn't really work with MSN."
Microsoft's move to curb the estimated 10 billion spam messages carried on MSN annually mirrors similar efforts by other ISPs.
"Almost everyone else, including EarthLink and MindSpring, implemented this a year ago," said Steve Linford, an anti-spam advocate at the Spamhaus Project.
The difference, says Eudora's Toth, is that most other ISPs use industry standards for these spam filters, which allow for the use of various email programs. By contrast, MSN standards are proprietary, making it harder for any email clients other than those made by Microsoft to work with MSN email accounts.
"It's deja vu all over again," said Ken Starr, the former independent counsel. Starr, who is now counsel to ProComp, a group promoting competition that has opposed Microsoft's business practices, told Tech Live that Microsoft's move to block mail was monopolistic behavior.
However, the practice is not unique to Microsoft. AOL's spam filtering processes are also proprietary, which means subscribers can't use Eudora to check their AOL accounts.
Posted July 12, 2001
Modified July 13, 2001
http://www.techtv.com/news/internet/story/0,24195,3336969,00.html
By Maria Godoy, Tech Live
New anti-spam filters that kick into effect Monday will make it harder for MSN Internet access subscribers to use email software made by Microsoft rivals.
In an email to MSN's 5 million subscribers, Microsoft said it is implementing the new filters to make it harder for spammers to harvest an MSN email account and use the address to send out junk email.
Under the new system, MSN's outgoing email servers will authenticate the email account and password for every MSN email address. If MSN subscribers do not update their email settings by Monday, they will lose the ability to send email through their MSN accounts, the email said.
Microsoft told users in the letter that it is implementing the email enhancements "to help you protect your MSN account from unsolicited commercial email." But a side note to the email is sure to cause concern among those who accuse Microsoft of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain its software supremacy.
"MSN does not support email software other than Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express," Microsoft told MSN subscribers. "If you are using an application other than Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you will no longer be able to send email once we have deployed our new email system."
But this is nothing new, a Microsoft spokesman told TechTV.
"This is all about using our own proprietary authentication system that was started we when launched the service in 95," said Mark Wayne, MSN product manager. "Other email clients were not supported then and never have been."
"We are not changing the game midstream," he added. "We've never supported other email clients and we don't have plans to now."
However, when TechTV called MSN's tech support, we were told the passage in question was a bit misleading.
According to MSN tech support, subscribers will still be able to use non-Microsoft email clients -- such as Eudora, Qualcomm's popular free email software -- with their MSN email accounts, as long as the software in question can be configured to work with outgoing mail server authentication. As was previously the case, MSN will not provide tech support for subscribers who use non-Microsoft email software.
If the email client in question does not support this security feature, subscribers will have to use Outlook or Outlook Express, MSN tech support said.
So why did Microsoft's missive to MSN subscribers tell them they would no longer be able to use applications other than Outlook or Outlook Express when this was not the case? According to MSN tech support, most subscribers aren't very tech savvy and would be "confused" by talk about mail server authentication.
However, according to Joseph Toth, technical support supervisor for Eudora, this statement from MSN tech support is also misleading.
"Microsoft is very comfortable with making it so people can't use other company's products with their servers," Toth said. "Because of proprietary authentication processes they have in place, Eudora doesn't really work with MSN."
Microsoft's move to curb the estimated 10 billion spam messages carried on MSN annually mirrors similar efforts by other ISPs.
"Almost everyone else, including EarthLink and MindSpring, implemented this a year ago," said Steve Linford, an anti-spam advocate at the Spamhaus Project.
The difference, says Eudora's Toth, is that most other ISPs use industry standards for these spam filters, which allow for the use of various email programs. By contrast, MSN standards are proprietary, making it harder for any email clients other than those made by Microsoft to work with MSN email accounts.
"It's deja vu all over again," said Ken Starr, the former independent counsel. Starr, who is now counsel to ProComp, a group promoting competition that has opposed Microsoft's business practices, told Tech Live that Microsoft's move to block mail was monopolistic behavior.
However, the practice is not unique to Microsoft. AOL's spam filtering processes are also proprietary, which means subscribers can't use Eudora to check their AOL accounts.
Posted July 12, 2001
Modified July 13, 2001
http://www.techtv.com/news/internet/story/0,24195,3336969,00.html