I wanted to use Skype in Mexico to make a phone call, because I had no cell phone service there.
Skype has been purchased by Microsoft. When I went to log on to my Skype account, they blocked me pending confirmation of my Microsoft account via text or phone call – which I obviously couldn’t do. That was why I wanted to use Skype.
So I had to use phone at the hotel desk.
You just can’t make up stupid like these large corporations. Except for in Government.
should have had bbm on your phone
Hey Tony, I work for Microsoft and am an avid follower of Real Science. That requirement was because the MS authentication engine saw you logging in from a place you normally don’t. That could be a hacker who had managed to get your password. By seeing you in another location/country, it needed a 2nd factor to authenticate you. This massively helps prevent people losing their accounts via fraud, but I agree, it can also be a pain in the butt. Microsoft calls this feature “two-step verification”.
I live in a no cell phone signal area: When this first came out, I enabled it for all my devices and accounts. With that, every device had to be certified via a 2 factor log in (at least initially). So, when I went to email address 1, it wanted a verification code from email 2. Email 2 needed a code from email 1, loll! So I ended up having to leave my house, get a code on the cell phone, and come back to unlock one of the 2 email addresses to fix my chicken and egg problem.
There’s a 2 factor authentication application you can use from a Smartphone (Windows Phone, and I think the others) called Authenticator that will generate these codes right on your phone, no email or call required. That’s what I now use.
BUT, this has helped LOTS of folks in keeping their account passwords safe from hackers. Google and Facebook are doing something like this now too, likely other providers as well. Its a GOOD thing for security. And, unlike Google, Microsoft doesn’t scan your private information for any reason (unless there’s a court order involved).
I use Skype a lot myself and now get the same pop-up. There is a link at the bottom that will take you to your original Skype sign in screen.
Microsoft = Government
http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-condemns-us-government-as-an-advanced-persistent-threat/
This is more accurate on the relationship.
If only there were some way that they could confirm your ownership of the account by using, – I don’t know – say, a random sequence of letters and numbers. We could call it a “Password” or something. If that alone weren’t enough maybe they could then ask a few pre-arranged questions where only you would know the correct answer. For example they could ask what high school you went to or in what city you met your wife….
Guess that’s too difficult though since no other company in the world has anything like that
They do have a password. Microsoft will still block access. I have looked at my hotmail account and see many attempted logins from Venezuela, Russia, Eastern Europe. Apparently with the correct password.
They are trying to protect the account.
My DeHavelle political site gets an average of about 420 WordPress login attempts per day. These are automated, using “admin” or various made-up names (including a bunch of attempts this morning by this thing):
The same name has attempted logins over the past couple of months — 430 times. But I don’t use “admin” and my password has not been cracked — and despite hundreds of thousands of attempts, this site and my other WP sites remain secure.
Passwords work adequately well. And the protection that Microsoft is so zealous about is not of their own assets, but merely our host’s Skype account.
What is the risk of allowing his traveling access? That someone else will use his Skype account, act as a spammer, and be shut down? With passwords and such, this seems an acceptable risk.
Incidentally, the “Covered California” Obamacare site is rather worse. If you misremember whether your answer to a security question used proper case, you are instantly locked out. Then, 90 minutes waiting for chat assistance gets you someone who tells you that your account may only be released by a voice operator. Hours waiting for such a person culminated in “we’ve emailed you a new password.” It never arrived, so more phone hours again — and it took two more attempts because someone there had typed the email in wrong, and no one is authorized to fix it.
My email in their records is still wrong. But as our host noted, this is Government, and even worse than large corporations — which would never have become large had they acted that way from the beginning.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
Word. Lots of truth in all of that.
These are the same people that you have to email to fix your email account or contact by phone for your VOIP account problems. There are many dents in the drywall (just above my eye level) in the house from such things.
For decades now, I have been using the phrase “Windows, the virus you ask for by name!”
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
And folks wonder why I don’t have it on my computer…
Haven’t used Windows since I retired. Hubby bought a new computer this year and the first thing he did was wipe windows and install Linux.
I miss both CPM and DOS (but not paper punch tape and card storage, that was a pain.) Things were simpler then.
I tried to use Skype after the take over. They told me I didn’t have an account. huh?