I am not an MSN customer, but I would be hopping mad if I was. How can the company that makes Windows have such a poorly run ISP?
Their servers go down regularly these days, which, it being 2004, is piss-poor performance with respect to other ISPs.
I wonder if they eat their own dogfood over at MSN. MSN's server OS is 2003 Server? MSN mail servers run Exchange? MSN web server all IIS? What a nightmare.
If you are trying to build trust in your software, in your operating system, in your business, then run your ISP more professionally. Please.
MSN Services Go Dark Again [microsoft-watch.com]
incidentally, it wasn't the ISP that went down but the Hotmail and Passport service. So for most people it was the free stuff that went down. The msn mail servers, Internet access, etc. were fine.
From what I understand, since the middle of 2001, portions of Hotmail have run on Windows Server 2000 (the earlier migration to NT 4.0 Server was a complete failure, apparently). However, it appears that other portions still run on FreeBSD.
Interestingly, some 2000 services are actually direct ports of the BSD services (related to TCP/IP management, among other things).
cdg
Long sign-in times, greeting delayed for 5 to 10 minutes, problems with signing out, screen freezing, problems pulling up e-mail, distorted home page, many pop-ups---if it can happen, it has! I spent 30 minutes with a very patient tech support person, who walked me through the steps to hopefully correct the problem. It has to a great extent, but I still feel insecure about what could happen next. Friends and family have been encouraging me to switch to Verizon. I am a 79-year old retired woman who is working a part-time job to help support myself. Anybody else out there with similar experiences?