Category: Geeks r Us
Hi all I wanted to send this to you all to make you aware that hotmail is full of whores. Ok so I bought space so i could se outlook, and not only do i get dooplicate messages all the time but then i got the picture match the numbers thing twice with in a week and a half. No prob i fill it out the first time with the audio, and the second time the audio wouldn't come back, and I went to email them. They gave me allot of bullshit I'll paist below, and I went back on to try again. I used the audio, and entered it correctly. Cpome to find out all the audio have ten or eleven numbers, and it keeps saying that the picture has eight charicters, there fore I can not access email that I have paid for. message from them below
Hello Candice,
Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support. My name is Christina and I understand that you are unable to access your e-mail due to the pictures
that you need to match. I know how this may have been inconvenient for you.
Candice, the characters you are asked to enter is part of the Hotmail Human Interactive Proof (HIP) validation process. In order to access your account,
you will need to correctly enter the text on the screen. Hotmail now requires HIP validation for all accounts opened after June 2005. When you access
your account on www.hotmail.com for the first time, you will be required to complete an HIP puzzle. Additionally, every time that your account meets the
criteria to receive a new challenge you will be prompted to receive an HIP puzzle. Typically you receive this prompt when you send an e-mail.
HIP validation increases our ability to help protect customers from receiving spam from other Hotmail accounts, and guards your account against hacking
tries. It also helps us keep our servers free from unwanted messages, guaranteeing timely delivery of messages that you send and receive. HIP validation
is now required on all paid and free Hotmail accouts. We cannot disable this important security feature on individual accounts.
Typically, this behavior occurs if one or more of the following conditions are true:
- The audio HIP validation is intentionally distorted.
- The volume on the computer is too low or the volume is muted.
- The speakers are not plugged in to the computer.
- The audio device drivers are not installed correctly on the computer.
If for some reason you are still encountering issues after doing these steps, please reply to this message and provide us the following information:
1. If the audio HIP challenge sounds muffled or distorted, replay the HIP challenge. The audio version is intentionally muffled and distorted to make it
difficult for a computer to recognize the number. This situation is similar to the way the text version of the HIP challenge can be difficult to read because
the characters are intentionally distorted. You can replay the audio HIP chalenge by clicking "Play Audio." You may replay the same audio puzzle until
you click "Continue" on the "Match the characters in the picture" page.
2. If the volume on the computer is set too low or the volume is muted, find the volume control dial on the speakers or on the computer, and then increase
the volume until you can hear the text clearly. You can also increase the volume on the "Volume" tab of the "Sounds and Audio Devices Properties" window:
a. Click "Start," click "Run," type "mmsys.cpl", and then click "OK."
b. Clear the "Mute" check box.
c. Adjust the volume slider until you can hear the HIP challenge.
3. If you use external speakers, make sure that you connect the speaker jacks to the correct speaker port and that you turn the speakers on.
4. If you cannot hear sound in any application, the audio hardware may not be installed correctly. Contact the audio device manufacturer or the computer
manufacturer for information about how to install the udio device correctly.
You are a valuable customer to MSN and we are glad to give you consistent and effective service. Thank you for using MSN Hotmail.
Sincerely,
Christina S.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support
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So tell me stuff I don't know.
Hey Candy when I was a hotmail member, it worked fine for years! I joined they didn't have the picture thing! I had to validate it a few years ago! All I did was try to email my friend Maria! I tried to varify the picture with the audio! It sounded like a woman eating! I sent them an email! I got the same message you got from Christina! Except it was from son one named Sherry! I told them to get rid of my account! I had a free account though! I went to www.care2.com I found it on Google! It's free and guess no picture varifactions!
more of the bullshit from hotmail. I wrote the following message...
It is giving as audio ten numbers every time, but it tells me that the picture has eight numbers.
Thank you
Candice
following was responce
Hello Candice,
Thank you for writing back to MSN Hotmail Technical Support. This is Elvie and I understand that you were having issues hearing the audio to identify HIP
characters.
Candice, after careful investigation, it is highly possible that the media player you are using or your machine may have caused this issue. Please make
sure to check the following:
1. Your connection speed should be fast enough to play the audio file.
2. You have the latest update for your media player.
3. Your sound card drivers are updated.
You can contact your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the latest updates and drivers for your machine. If you can hear sounds from your machine
but you are unable to hear sounds coming from the Human Interactive Proof (HIP) validation page, please notify us so that we can do further investigation
on your account.
Tank you for your continued support of MSN Hotmail.
so yes i sent them a nice reply in return
we'll see how they respond to
I am getting frustrated. My media works just fine. everything is updated. I have done this with hotmail before. It will now not even transfer to my media
player. I am completely blind and do not live with someone sighted, and this is getting anoying. This is my third time trying to tell you the audio file
won't work. I have already expressed my concerns to other members of the blindness comunity. I know you need the HIP system i understand that but if I
can't access something I have paid for I either would like to be reimbursed, or the problem to be fixed.
thanks again
Candice
I don't know sometimes they give such stupit answers.
You didn't say you couldn't hear the numbers but you said you could hear more. So what this has to be with your soundcard or media player? Surely soundcards can't produce more numbers hahaha.
I don't believe them.
this is crazy. how in the world can they not understand what your saying? this is one reason i don't have hotmail
I got a hotmail account in I can't even remember, 1999 or something, when that security feature wasn't an issue. I signed up for another passport thing, though, and the audio worked fine for me. It is suppose to be distorted. Candice, maybe I can help you register, if you want. Just let me know.
liz i've had this accoun since i was fifteen. I have used the audio before. I know half the site thinks I'm a retard, but honestly i've used the HIP thing a number of times before. It's not so much i need help as much as i need to figure out why hotmail is being a bunch of asses. thanks.
woodya believe that there making it up as they go along? But seriously(don't know If I am capable of that) I would consider a GMail account. I use one and the audio verification works fine. They offer an excellent tool for configuration and they offer free pop access so you can use any e-mail client you like. I recommend it to all my client's and they are so far happy with it.
rofl after that email i got one saying they were investigating, and then another exempting me from the HIP. rofl well they know I'm a human that's for damn sure
Candace that's why I don't use that stupid hotmail or netscape or nothing like that! That's why I don't use windows messenger either! I'm happy with my account at www.care2.com so let me know how it turns out! Of course you're a human bing! I told them I was I also told the people at hotmail that I thought they were crazy when it happened to me! They told me to ask for sighted help! I told them that my mom and dad taught me to do what I can do for my self! Your friend, Hope
Ah people here. I'm going to help the reps at hotmail here some. *smile*
First I always advise any blind person to pay the small fee of $20 for the year, because it cuts all this out period. You have trouble you call them and they fix it for you. Now what they don't say and this is because they don't relize it is that each time you type the numbers or what ever in the box and miss they change. Now it may not change audio, but it does visually, so each time you get a new set to figure out all over again. The reps simply are not trained to understand this problem and see it this way. They see the stuff on the screen, it matches what they hear, so they can type it the first time out. What they don't do is put on a blindfold and try it. *smile* Maybe I should write them and suggest this just thought about it now.
Last for your small fee you'll not only get it settup, ut you'll not have any adds in your box to navigate, but you'll get more storage, better security, and spam filtering. Now here's what we should all do write them explain that sense it's not totally accessible for the blind would they give you a paid box free? Yeah that sounds good to me. I personally have MSN across the board, so get all this with my phone service and internet service for no fee. Also I forgot you'll never have to reset your box with a paid account.
Have fun!
I don't think the reps need any help! They don't seem to get it! Yeah it would be nice if we could get a payed box for free lol! That part there was a grate idea!
Today i experienced the hotmail problem myself. I went to send an email and instead of the send message confermation another page appeared saying type the characters.
I click on the listen link and i couldn't believe what i heard.
They made their audio so unclear. Apart of the woman saying the numbers another voice in the background can be heard. I understand that it has to be distorted but not as bad as this one. They could put hiss noice or scraching noices but as they have the audio now is inpossible for somebody to understand the numbers.
And also the numbers are not clear. Some of them are loud, some of them are quiet and the difference between 5 and 9 is not understandable.
Me and my girlfriend spend a lot of time trying to do it and at the end she mannaged to hear the numbers right.
How often do they do that? I have got my hotmail for 2 years and i think it happened to me once before but the audio then was much better.
And also if we request a new picture the audio is still the same as before. So to actually request a new audio as well we have to close internet explorer and open it again to hotmail. So you can understand how much time we spend.
I wish i didn't have to use hotmail again but i like the fact that msn messenger can let us know of new emails.
If it wasn't that i would never use it again.
Yahoo Instant messenger now allows you to import your Msn contacts! But Yahoo is just as stupid as hotmail! www.care2.com has an im program I'm going to learn how to use it!
Sorry for changing the subject but i wanted to create a group in yahoo.
They also have verification without audio but at list they have got a contact page for the blind. And their respons is very quick and they don't give stupit answers.
Anyway they asked for some info such as yahoo ID, birthday, sicret question and answer and now they removed my account from the verification. So i found that very amasing.
I think yahoo support is better than hotmail.
I haven't had to do the hip thing in a while.
Wow Nikos I'm going to have to give Yahoo a try again I think!