Why are the people at Microsoft such a load

[DaiMai]

My son has been trying to sign up for a hotmail account.

Part of the form asks for a secret question and an answer.

Name of you pet?

Middle name of you father?

Both his answers were rejected as too short.

Great!! Now we have to rename our pets and fathers to suit the b#######ds

at the almight microsoft?

No wonder Linux is gaining such a following.

[Amethyst]

its just part of the protection security ...try another name...

[DaiMai]

But that defeats the whole object of the questions,

they are supposed to be things you will remember becasue they are true!!

[LivinLOS]

Surely the name used for father was an abbrviation of his full given name ?? Just use that !!! Or select another question (there are a few for exactly the reason of getting a suitable one)..

And any linux user signing up for a hotmail account would have the same issue...

Edited January 30, 2005 by LivinLOS

[Darknight]

please rename your father and reboot your system

[Phil Conners]

Microslush just sucks, nothing we can do about it, short of trying to teach users how to use Linux or OSX.

[Thetyim]

No need to rename your father.

My father doesn't have a hotmail account so you can use his middle name if you like, I am sure he will not mind and microsoft would never find out .

Try using " Wilfred" I am sure this will work.

[chanchao]

This is just silly.. Webmail is webmail and Homail sucks, but it'll suck just as bad when you apply using Windows or Linux or OSX.

If you want decent webmail then PM me and I'll send you a GMail invite. Again, feel free to use that from Linux, if only so you can't complain about Microsoft anymore..

(Have 6 GMail invites available again)

Cheers,

Chanchao

[kabal1234]

My son has been trying to sign up for a hotmail account.

Part of the form asks for a secret question and an answer.

Name of you pet?

Middle name of you father?

Both his answers were rejected as too short.

Great!!  Now we have to rename our pets and fathers to suit the b#######ds

at the almight microsoft?

No wonder Linux is gaining such a following.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, bravo...

Passwords and keys that are too short compromise authentication security. Any security system worth its salt executes the similar validation. Who's the moron now?

[Joey Boy]

My son has been trying to sign up for a hotmail account.

Part of the form asks for a secret question and an answer.

Name of you pet?

Middle name of you father?

Both his answers were rejected as too short.

Great!!  Now we have to rename our pets and fathers to suit the b#######ds

at the almight microsoft?

No wonder Linux is gaining such a following.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, bravo...

Passwords and keys that are too short compromise authentication security. Any security system worth its salt executes the similar validation. Who's the moron now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

who mentioned passwords?

[Amethyst]

Well guys at leats they give u free email....Besides Hotmail always have a problem with their web based email...ive got alot of error like error on page..but it does not happens to yahoo mail or any other email

[cdnvic]

Who's the real morons, Microsoft, or the people who complain constantly while they keep using MS products. There's many free email providers out there if you think outside the "hotmail free...must sign up" blinders.

Get a gmail invite, or try mail.com where you can choose from many domain names and don't need to have an email address like bob94765734@hotmail.. you can actually have some halfway professional sounding email addy.

For the record, McUnix (linux) has given me the buggiest OS' of all. But of course when people go to open source they don't bother to shop around, they just go sheep-like to linux.

Taking a half hour to at least consider your options can make your computing experience better.

Nobody is forced to use Microsoft. Its just that most people can't be bothered to learn anything else. Whinging is much easier.

Oh and to the original poster;

Tell your son to use a longer name and just write it down somewhere. Nobody from hotmail will come by and grill you to see if its really your middle name.

cv

[kabal1234]

My son has been trying to sign up for a hotmail account.

Part of the form asks for a secret question and an answer.

Name of you pet?

Middle name of you father?

Both his answers were rejected as too short.

Great!!  Now we have to rename our pets and fathers to suit the b#######ds

at the almight microsoft?

No wonder Linux is gaining such a following.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, bravo...

Passwords and keys that are too short compromise authentication security. Any security system worth its salt executes the similar validation. Who's the moron now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

who mentioned passwords?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Duh, I said passwords and KEYS.

Secret question answers are a form of authentication similar to passwords!

You are attempting to authenticate yourself to the system.

[astral]

Tell your son to use a longer name and just write it down somewhere. Nobody from hotmail will come by and grill you to see if its really your middle name.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Writing down keys and passwords is also a breach of security!!

[cdnvic]

Tell your son to use a longer name and just write it down somewhere. Nobody from hotmail will come by and grill you to see if its really your middle name.

Writing down keys and passwords is also a breach of security!!

Yeah, there's hackers waiting out in your back yard to break in and steal the password to a 10yr old's hotmail account.

be afraid...be very afraid!

cv

[Steve2UK]

My son has been trying to sign up for a hotmail account.

Part of the form asks for a secret question and an answer.

Name of you pet?

Middle name of you father?

Both his answers were rejected as too short.

Great!!  Now we have to rename our pets and fathers to suit the b#######ds

at the almight microsoft?

No wonder Linux is gaining such a following.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Certainly not going to defend Microsloppy - I have to be dragged kicking and screaming to use their software....... much the same way as they have to be to improve sloppy releases in response to the competition (while there is any). Yahoo is a better bet - e.g. MS only upped the storage limit because Yahoo did.

Anyhow, simple solution to your original point (if you/your son don't want to follow good password procedure as others have suggested): just type the name twice - e.g. "billbill", "fidofido"..............

But - I bet your son is less bothered by this than you are!