I discovered that VeriSign's SiteFinder service breaks Microsoft's
Outlook Express email reader. If a user misspells a domain name in
their POP3 or SMTP server name, Outlook Express no longer provides
meaningful error messages to a user to help them to fix the problem.
Similar problems may exist in other email readers and other
Internet-enabled software. This Outlook Express problem raises
questions about what kind of testing VeriSign did to understand the
collateral damage to application software from the SiteFinder service
before the service was turned on.
Here are the expected error messages in Outlook Express for a misspelled
domain name:
The host 'smtp.rcntypodomain.us' could not be
found. Please verify that you have entered the
server name correctly. Account: 'pop.rcn.com',
Server: 'smtp.rcntypodomain.us', Protocol: SMTP,
Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 11004,
Error Number: 0x800CCC0D
The host 'pop.rcntypodomain.us' could not be found.
Please verify that you have entered the server name
correctly. Account: 'pop.rcn.com', Server:
'pop.rcntypodomain.us', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110,
Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 11004, Error Number:
0x800CCC0D
With SiteFinder, here are the error messages that are now produced:
The message could not be sent because one of the
recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected
e-mail address was 'rms (at) computerbytesman (dot) com [email concealed]'.
Subject 'Testing 1 2 3', Account: 'pop.rcn.com',
Server: 'smtp.rcntypodomain.com', Protocol: SMTP,
Server Response: '550 <unknown[24.91.207.165]>:
Client host rejected: The domain you are trying
to send mail to does not exist.', Port: 25,
Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error
Number: 0x800CCC79
The connection to the server has failed. Account:
'pop.rcn.com', Server: 'pop.rcntypodomain.com',
Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket
Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E
I discovered that VeriSign's SiteFinder service breaks Microsoft's
Outlook Express email reader. If a user misspells a domain name in
their POP3 or SMTP server name, Outlook Express no longer provides
meaningful error messages to a user to help them to fix the problem.
Similar problems may exist in other email readers and other
Internet-enabled software. This Outlook Express problem raises
questions about what kind of testing VeriSign did to understand the
collateral damage to application software from the SiteFinder service
before the service was turned on.
Here are the expected error messages in Outlook Express for a misspelled
domain name:
The host 'smtp.rcntypodomain.us' could not be
found. Please verify that you have entered the
server name correctly. Account: 'pop.rcn.com',
Server: 'smtp.rcntypodomain.us', Protocol: SMTP,
Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 11004,
Error Number: 0x800CCC0D
The host 'pop.rcntypodomain.us' could not be found.
Please verify that you have entered the server name
correctly. Account: 'pop.rcn.com', Server:
'pop.rcntypodomain.us', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110,
Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 11004, Error Number:
0x800CCC0D
With SiteFinder, here are the error messages that are now produced:
The message could not be sent because one of the
recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected
e-mail address was 'rms (at) computerbytesman (dot) com [email concealed]'.
Subject 'Testing 1 2 3', Account: 'pop.rcn.com',
Server: 'smtp.rcntypodomain.com', Protocol: SMTP,
Server Response: '550 <unknown[24.91.207.165]>:
Client host rejected: The domain you are trying
to send mail to does not exist.', Port: 25,
Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error
Number: 0x800CCC79
The connection to the server has failed. Account:
'pop.rcn.com', Server: 'pop.rcntypodomain.com',
Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket
Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E
Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
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