Most interesting.
This morning a routine email out to my isp started failing. OK, no big deal. Often stuff has to try more than once to get out. After the third try, it was time to look into it. The message was "needs authentication". Huh? I haven't changed anything in my email accounts since I abandoned a spammy email address and created a new one. But that was a while ago. OK! Let's debug. Can we do the Outlook Lookout test account? Hmmm, everything works EXCEPT the send. OK, let's look at the email address. Looks good. Other settings? Hmmm, the outbound "needs authentication" box is unchecked. That's not right. Check it. Test it. OK. Send mail. OK. Hmm so how did that box get unchecked. Ghosts? The wicked witch of the west. Or just Outlook donning it persona of Lookout and making life interesting for the poor dumb user. And, people wonder why I want to leave Microsoft? At least, an open source vendor would be interested in my problem. Or at least feign interest if I was a donor. Heck, the beta software guys actually respond. Sigh!
Reinke Faces Life 