[X-Newbies] Firewall interfering with Yahoomail?

[Robert Ameeti]

>I finally joined the broadband bandwagon. Everything is hunky dory, except for one thing; I can't connect to Yahoo.

I've not ever liked Yahoo as I think they try to take control of your life. Do note that they are owned by SBC which has just recently bought ATT so things aren't going to get better with them anytime soon. I'm going to post an open letter from another comrade below for your enjoyment since it seems to be right on target with your issues.

>Dear Yahoo!:
>
>Security is a concern of any informed surfer these days. Toward that end a firewall is an essential component of a computer. I use ZoneAlarm Pro, a very robust software firewall. It blocks JavaScript, VBScript, Java applets, ActiveX, MIME, cookies, web bugs, and ads, in addition to unauthorized connections. However, I can set it to allow these objects for any website(s) I choose.
>
>Yahoo! Mail, in fact, all of MyYahoo!, no longer functions for me. The pages take several minutes to finish loading, if at all, because they attempt to pull in so many sites that are being blocked by my firewall. Look at all the crap that is fetched in trying to navigate my MyYahoo! pages:
>
>rd.yahoo.com
>us.rd.yahoo.com
>us.i1.yimg.com
>us.a1.yimg.com
>view.atdmt.com
>ad.doubleclick.net
>m3.doubleclick.net
>f530.mail.yahoo.com
>us.f530.mail.yahoo.com
>spe.atdmt.com
>adfarm.mediaplex.com
>img-cdn.mediaplex.com
>us.js1.yimg.com
>sec.yimg.com
>advision.webevents.yahoo.com
>us.csc.adserver.yahoo.com
>
>...and so on. This is just too much you must honestly agree. I appreciate Yahoo! is free and you're ad-supported, but I can't possibly and won't attempt to set firewall exceptions for all these domains and the others that aren't listed. I either have to drop my shields completely to use Yahoo! or not use Yahoo!. Given that choice, regrettably, I will be switching to mail2web or Hotmail or some other HTTP service. Regrettable because I really liked Yahoo! email better than all the others. But I have no choice. The pages don't function. MyYahoo! and Yahoo! Mail no longer are better because in this day and age of security-consciousness they no longer are useable. I think you're behind the times if you expect people to maintain their former surfing habits and to tolerate this degree of intrusion. As soon as I can get my correspondents switched to new email addresses I'll be switching my home page away from Yahoo!. I'd even rather pay a reasonable monthly fee for something I can rely on and trust.
>
>I expect you really could not care less whether I leave or not--yet. At least I've done my part in informing you of the way it is. But you should start caring before it's too late. I would advise you to change your practices before you flop altogether. Don't wait too long. It's just a matter of time before the general public gets up to speed on security. Once you lose us it's very hard to get us back.
>
>Regards,
>WWJ

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Robert Ameeti

Yield to temptation -- it may not pass your way again.

- Robert A. Heinlein
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