Rakeingrass (amongst others) use a Captcha where you have to solve a (simple) mathematical puzzle, as opposed to trying to work out what letters are what.

Is most of the spam travelling through Plusnet's network the result of

a) Spammers using the webmail client
or
b) Plusnet's lax security

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Just to be clear, PlusNet have absolutely nothing to do with mail2web.com

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They do!! They have effectively given it permission (& one that PN have recommended) to access the PN Email System & send Emails out via it!!

It does seem a bit rich that PN are justifying the inclusion of this "peculiar/unreadable" graphic because of the open nature of a Web-Based Email interface, but still letting another Web-Based Email interface have access without that level of security!!

Okay, I'll rephrase. PlusNet have absolutely nothing to do with the running or management or funding of mail2web. The previous post seemed to imply they had set it up or were somehow involved, I just want to make the distinction. Additionally they haven't 'given permission' mail2web to do anything. The service is a web-based interface to pop3/imap mail servers. Finally, mail2web is for receiving not sending. It does not give access to PlusNet's SMTP servers, which PlusNet's webmail service does. It's spamming via PlusNet's SMTP servers that the measure they have implemented is designed to limit.

I'm not defending PlusNet, but they are two different companies and this is very important. There's enough FUD around after all There are also myriad of double-standards within PlusNet and their policies, but adding to the confusion doesn't help.

This would be better..

The audio captcha..

Google Releases Audio CAPTCHA

Google has now unveiled the Audio CAPTCHA for blind and low-vision users for many of the Google services. Gmail, Google Groups and the Google Account for the homepage. Users simply have to click the link and type the numbers they hear.

http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2006/04/11/google-releases-audio-captcha/

Great idea, however if you were at work, most work PC's do not have audio.

If this was implemented the choice of 2 either visual or audio would be cool.

That's exactly what google are planing on doing

There's no way any system is going to be perfect, but allowing options and accessibility for people with different needs is something that has to be striven for.

I haven't dared to use the new WebMail since the problems with the old one but if the Captcha system is the same system that was being used then I can confirm that the images are very difficult to read with the naked eye and it often took me 5+ attempts to work out what characters were being shown. This makes the system rather self defeating as it just upsets real customers.

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Finally, mail2web is for receiving not sending.

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Strange!!! I've BOTH sent & replied to Emails using the Mail2Web interface onto the PN Email Servers.

If you're going to quote me, please do so in full

I didn't say you couldn't send, I said you couldn't send using PlusNet's SMTP servers. There is a large but important difference, just as there is a large but important difference between PlusNet linking to a website that provides a service and them running a website that provides a service.

If you don't understand the difference I'll be happy to explain.

Edited by h0tblack (Thu 14-Jun-07 15:19:35)