IP: Microsoft e-mail service crippled

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said its free e-mail service
had been partially crippled because it forgot to pay a $35 bill. Some
users of Microsoft's Hotmail service were unable to access their
accounts over the Christmas weekend. The glitch was caused after
Microsoft failed to pay a $35 fee to registration company Network
Solutions for rights to the Internet domain name passport.com, which
verifies user names and passwords for Hotmail and other services,
Gill said. Hotmail has more than 52 million users around the world,
but Microsoft said it was unclear how many had experienced problems.
In an ironic twist, the missed billing was discovered and paid by
Michael Chaney, an Antioch, Tenn.-based programmer who works with the
Linux operating system, an upstart competitor to Microsoft's Windows
platform. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562914545-8ef


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A Happy Holiday and a safe New Year

from Dave and GG Farber

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