You can log in to our mail servers to receive mail from anywhere, whether that's via webmail a mail client or just using telnet. To send mail via our relay servers you need to be connected to our network and we'll know the identity (username or CLI) of everyone connecting. With webmail you aren't necessarily connecting via our network but you are still sending mail via our mail servers. As such as I said above there's a much greater danger of an anonymous spammer sending spam via webmail.

With something like Mail2Web you are sending mail via their mail servers rather than our servers and they may well have different processes in place to trap spammers.

This is something that I believe is already being addressed, I will check into it.

I know hotmail lets you have an audio that says numbers and then you type the numbers in.

The issue we have is that spammers can and have written scripts to sign up free accounts and then use webmail to send lots of spam - It's pretty easy to do and to automate if you know how. We could stop offering free accounts, and to be honest that is something that will probably happen anyway, but at least until then some sort of mechanism is needed to prevent the automation.

The problem with whatever way we choose to achieve this, we are using Squirrelmail and we are restricted by the availability of suitable plug-ins. Unless anyone knows of a suitable Squirrelmail Plugin that is well tested and bug free, writing our own plugin that could do sound or has "pick the kitten" type images is probably the only way we can improve this and that isn't a quick fix.

I do see your (and many other like you) problems.
To conform with the Disability Discrimination Act you have to do certain things.
If you are offering something for free, where is the value of spending X amount of money & time.
So the end result is removing the service so no one gets it!

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To conform with the Disability Discrimination Act you have to do certain things.
If you are offering something for free, where is the value of spending X amount of money & time.
So the end result is removing the service so no one gets it!

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The end result has always been an issue I have with the DDA. It seeks to make things easier for the disabled (which is good) but very often at the expense of the majority as services get cut back as it costs so much more to provide them whilst being fully compliant.

It reminds me of a shop in Stratford on Avon. The shop is in a listed building in the middle of town so alterning it is a very difficult process and is unlikely to be approved. The door in (and the only door at that) is up a couple of steps through a narrow door. Someone in a wheelchair came past just after the law was enacted threatening to take the shop to court because they couldn't get in without assistance. The problem is there was no easy to alter the shop entrance to make it wheelchair accessible without breaking planning laws. The shop were stuck in a catch22.

In reply to:

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It reminds me of a shop in Stratford on Avon. The shop is in a listed building in the middle of town so alterning it is a very difficult process and is unlikely to be approved. The door in (and the only door at that) is up a couple of steps through a narrow door. Someone in a wheelchair came past just after the law was enacted threatening to take the shop to court because they couldn't get in without assistance. The problem is there was no easy to alter the shop entrance to make it wheelchair accessible without breaking planning laws. The shop were stuck in a catch22.

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I feel for shopkeepers in that position. It's not an shopkeepers fault someone is in a wheelchair,
but they now have to pay to convert so it costs them X amount.

Anyway going OT now so better shut up shop, so to speak!

It's one of those things that people describe as swings and roundabouts I guess.

If only subscription accounts used webmail then it wouldn't need the captcha but it's probably an even bigger piece of development to be able to filter them.

Looking at the call graphs for dial-up over the last 4 years there's a steady decrease, I can see there being a market for a while yet for PAYG dial-up but that market for new sign ups will just get smaller and smaller so at some point it does make sense to discontinue it.