Hello, 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@computerbytesman.com'. 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
