Outlook outage outrage An unknown issue affecting Microsoft's free email service Outlook has left users' email clients borked. The apparent outage is being widely complained about on sites such as Down Detector and Down Today, where many users have claimed they have been unable to access their accounts through email clients for as long as three days …
The error I was getting mentioned something to do with Federated Trust issues.
The exact error was:
Error="AuthFailed:LogonDenied-FederatedStsUnreachable"
when trying to log in to POP using a hotmail.co.uk account, which suggests an issue with AD domains and the Trust between them.
As mentioned in the article, I set up an alias on my account using the outlook.com domain, and using that I was able to connect and retrieve mail as normal.
3 MSN USA accounts here. 2 work fine, 1 fails to authorise using Thunderbird. I suspect its a problem with a single server, or group of servers. If the account uses that server to authorise then no go. However, setting up an alias for the account, as mentioned above and in article, worked and can access all mail again, though original email address still fails.
Technically the "I am getting the same problem which, for me, was due to the "<username>@hotmail.com"" was not strictly correct, because it was actually my spouse's @hotmail.com address that was no-longer able to collect emails via IMAP. (Not sure whether SMTP was similarly failing, as no emails sent). I was already using @outlook.com credentials but in an otherwise identical configuration. So it was an educated guess as to what was probably going wrong, and the educated guess at a fix did indeed solve spouse's email collection probem.
And this is why I don't trust anything cloudy... it may have borkage in it...
Sure, on paper it looks great - no physical server or hardware to worry about, no email admin to pay, no licence fees to worry about...
...until cloud services bork horribly, and you cannot send/receive any emails...
...and lose a multimilliondollar contract.
Now suddenly a dedicated server with email software and a dedicated email admin looks cheaper compared to the money you've lost...
Face it, you don't need somebody to be present 24x7x365 at the email server. The server itself can sit on your premises, but you can contract somebody to come and check its health once every week or so. Same with the hardware, there are many options out there. Purchasing a server outright may not be in your best interest, you can perhaps lease a server (and get a new server every 2 years this way).
But if your business aren't reliant on emails (small home office etc) then cloud is the best bet, although keep in mind it will be wibbly and wobbly.
They certainly are doing some stuff with accounts and identity generally.
Have a look here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2016/09/15/cleaning-up-the-azure-ad-and-microsoft-account-overlap/ It looks innocuous but it's caused nightmares for a number of corporates. It seems to have been poorly planned with no though for unintended consequences.
I bet this is related in some way.
Who was the stupid git who thought it would be a good idea to replace the standard Hotmail login screen (you know enter username and password and then hit send), into 2 different pages. First you have to enter your email address, send that off, load new page, enter Password, send that off, and then you can load your email.
Who in the world has said, "you know that using a single page to enter your email credentials. thats a Problem, we should change that! Lets add a second loading page, because thats what the world really Needs!"
Muppets...
Lookout/Coldmail fails again - and we are surprised?
NO!!!! MicroCRAP are heading for the history books as they flounder around, failing to test and bringing out CRAP products. I tried helping someone with a Windows 8 - RT machine the other day - IT'S PATHETIC! How anyone could pass that for release/sale is beyond me.
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