LinxNet.com Policies: Hotmail® and MSN®

Dear Reader,

You were likely led to this page as a result of receiving notification that email you attempted to send to a LinxNet.com address was refused.

It has recently come to our attention that Microsoft® appears to be forcing requiring encouraging users of its Hotmail® and MSN® services to use only Microsoft® email applications (e.g.: MS Outlook), ostensibly as part of an "anti-spam" initiative. (Ref: MSN Forces Outlook POP, Qwest.net -- MSN -- FAQs: Why should I transition my service to MSN®? and Qwest.net -- MSN -- FAQs: What content and services will I be able to access easily through MSN®?.)

We heartily applaud Microsoft's initiative and wish to do our part to further the effort of stamping out that scourge of the Internet: spam. And while we're at it, maybe we can do something to help eliminate email-borne trojans, worms and viruses. So...

Being as Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express email clients have been the primary targets and means of propagating email-borne viruses, worms and trojans, and being as we can now expect that all Hotmail® and MSN® users will be using MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express, and being as Hotmail® email addresses frequently appear in spam we receive (sometimes real, sometimes forged), we have established the following policy:

As of Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001: LinxNet.com will no longer accept email originating from, claiming to originate from, having passed through, or claiming to have passed through, "hotmail.com" or "msn.com" accounts or servers. Accounts, servers and networks belonging to any other Microsoft properties will no doubt be included.

Regards,
Your Friendly LinxNet.com Administration

P.S.: We are considering adding rules to reject email authored with either MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express just on General Principles.

Comments or Questions?

Created: 18 Oct, 2001 / Last updated: 19 Apr, 2002

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