A problem with Microsoft's Hotmail and
MSN email service is preventing users from multiple providers from sending
messages to the Microsoft email services.
Users of the mail application in Apple's OS X operating system on Monday
started
reporting that email messages addressed to Hotmail and MSN addresses weren't
being delivered. The problem doesn't occur if a copy of the message is sent to
the user's own account. Changing the priority setting from 'normal' to either
'high' or 'low' also provides a workaround, users reported on the forum.
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Microsoft was made aware of the issues with Apple users on Tuesday. The
company acknowledged the problem and said it has been working on a solution. As
of Thursday afternoon there was still no fix and Microsoft couldn't provide any
background information on what was causing the problems.
Subscribers of the Comcast broadband internet service reported similar issues
last week. The provider started blocking all outgoing email sent to Hotmail and
MSN accounts after these messages were queuing up on their servers. The issue
was resolved on October 20, as vnunet.com
reported
earlier this week.
Users of the Canadian broadband providers
Rogers and
Cogeco have
reported similar issues to the ones that face Apple and Comcast clients.
Some user complaints on public fora go back months. Microsoft's refusal to
discuss the situation made it impossible to verify those claims and determine if
they are related.
Apple PR did not respond to repeated requests for information. A spokeswoman
for Rogers said that she wasn't aware of any
issues. Cogeco did not return a phone call
seeking further information. A spokeswoman for Comcast declined to provide
information about the technical background of last week's outage.
Andrew Lockhart, director of product marketing for email security vendor
Postini said that the problems appear to be
spam-related. An action by Microsoft could have triggered a response from the
providers, leading to the outages.
"These things almost become like a comedy of errors," Lockhart told
vnunet.com.
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