.net & IE6

[Sitara Lal]

Is there any way to start IE6 without it trying to log on the user to a .NET
platform?

A couple of days ago (after having used a Hotmail account for 10+ years and
hence acquiring a ".net passport" by default) I was asked to provide
personal information including date of birth etc. So I put in my DOB as
1/1/2005. Next, .net asked me to provide proof of 'parental approval' which
requires me to provide either a credit card or a copy of a government ID
showing my date of birth etc. Needless to say that in this day and age of
online fraud and ID theft, I am not about to provide either. Especially when
I have noticed that my Hotmail account draws far more spam than any of my
other accounts, though I am careful to use it only with a tight circle of
personal friends.

Who needs Hotmail when I've got GMail (and Yahoo! as well, for that matter)
and the same goes for IE6 when I have firefox. However, there are some
online sites I use (bank, stockbroker etc) which only work in IE6.

The problem is now whenever I fire up IE6, it refuses to load any other web
site until I have got past the darned 'parental approval' page of .net; of
course there is no way to do so without providing MS with personal
information.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

 

[Galen]

In Sitara Lal <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Is there any way to start IE6 without it trying to log on the user to
a .NET platform?

A couple of days ago (after having used a Hotmail account for 10+
years and hence acquiring a ".net passport" by default) I was asked
to provide personal information including date of birth etc. So I put
in my DOB as 1/1/2005. Next, .net asked me to provide proof of
'parental approval' which requires me to provide either a credit card
or a copy of a government ID showing my date of birth etc. Needless
to say that in this day and age of online fraud and ID theft, I am
not about to provide either. Especially when I have noticed that my
Hotmail account draws far more spam than any of my other accounts,
though I am careful to use it only with a tight circle of personal
friends.
Who needs Hotmail when I've got GMail (and Yahoo! as well, for that
matter) and the same goes for IE6 when I have firefox. However, there
are some online sites I use (bank, stockbroker etc) which only work
in IE6.
The problem is now whenever I fire up IE6, it refuses to load any
other web site until I have got past the darned 'parental approval'
page of .net; of course there is no way to do so without providing MS
with personal information.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

I did something similar only it was a typographical/mousing error induced by
beer. I emailed Hotmail support and they fixed everything up for me
including setting my birthday to the right day. I'd pointed out that I'd had
the account for a rather long time and explained what I'd done and within a
half hour I had a response with a fixed up account.

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Sitara Lal]

Well Galen, you were lucky. I sent a message to the .net / Passport customer
service as well, but some idiot there did not read my message (or perhaps
more likely, did not understand it) and simply sent back a canned message
asking for a credit card or ID - exactly what I did not want to do.

Anyway, the question is how can I use IE6 without submitting to this .net /
Passport interrogation.

 

[Sandi - Microsoft MVP]

Actually, there is no 'idiot' involved at the Hotmail side of things. You
have hit an autoresponder that searches for keywords.

Frankly, it was silly of you to tell such a blatent lie and declare that you
are not even a year old, yes?

Examine the RUNONCE keys in the registry. They may be affecting what page is
loaded by IE on initial start-up.

--

__________________________________________
Sandi's Site has changed - for instructions on how to
find old URLs, go here:
http://msmvps.com/spywaresucks/archive/2005/05/14/46971.aspx

Hyperlinks used to ensure advice is current
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org

Visit the Internet Explorer Community
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/default.mspx

 

[Sitara Lal]

Sorry Sandi, you are right, machines (or autoresponders) are not 'idiots';
however, people who program them and who take business decisions to
incorporate silly policies and then install autoresponders to deal with
support issues, can well be (as amply illustrated in this case) idiots.

BTW, silly questions deserve nothing more than silly answers.

Firefox - hip, hip, hooray!