137 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
File: HACKING MCI MAIL
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Read 25 times
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-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-
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= =
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- MCI MAIL: The Adventure Continues -
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= [2600 -- July 1984] =
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- -
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= Word Processed by BIOC Agent 003 for Sherwood Forest ][ =
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- -
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-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-
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You really have to hand it to those folks over at MCI. First they tackle Ma
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Bell and now they're going after the U.S. Postal Service! MCI Mail's slogan,
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"The Nation's New Postal System," is printed on every bright orange envelope
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that they send through, you guessed it, U.S. Mail.
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On this system a user is assigned a "mailbox" that he can use to send and
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receive mail. Sending is done either electroncially, that is, to other people
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with MCI mailboxes or through the post office, which covers eveybody else in
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the world. The first type of letter will cost you $1 for the first three pages
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while the second type is double the cost. It's also possible to send an
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overnight letter ($6) or a four-hour letter ($25) to some places.
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The purpose of MCI Mail is to stimulate the use of electronic mail by making
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it more accessible to the average person. For that we must give them credit --
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anybody can get an account on the system! There is no start-up fee and no
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monthly fee of any kind. To get an account, all you have to do is call them --
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either by voice or data. If you call by data [800-323-7751/0905], you'll have
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to enter REGISTER as the username and REGISTER as the password. The rest is
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self-explanatory. After a couple of weeks, you'll get in the mail (regular
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mail, that is) one big orange envelope that has, among other things, your
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password. With this info, you're now free to log onto the system, look for
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people you know, send and retrieve messages, reall all of their help files, or
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even hop onto the Dow Jones News Service (watch it though -- that can get
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pretty expensive!)
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The system is set up on a network of Vaxes throughout the country. They've
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been operating since September 1983 and claim to have over 100,000 subscribers.
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Many of these are actually subscribers to the Dow Jones service, who are
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automatically given MCI accounts whether they want them or not.
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While the rates aren't overly expensive, they're certainly not cheap.
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Mailing regular letters is much cheaper an often just as fast since not every
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MCI Mail user checks their mailbox every day. Apart from that, though, there
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are many problems with the system as it stands now. For one thing, it can take
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forever getting on it, particularly through the 800 numbers. When you finally
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do get a carrier, you should get a message like this after hitting two returns:
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Port 20.
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Please enter your user name:
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Enter the username you selected and the password they assigned you. It
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should say, "Connection initiated....Opened." From that point, you're in.
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But the system will often appear to be bogged down. Often you have to hit
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twenty returns instead of two. Sometimes the system won't let you in because
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all the connections are "busy". Other times it will just drop the carrier.
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Real mail boxes don't do that.
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Another thing that will drive you crazy are the menus. Every time you enter
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a command, you get a whole new menu to choose from. If you're at 300 baud,
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this can get pretty annoying, especially it you know what all the options are.
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There are two ways around this: get the advanced version, which allows you to
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enter multi-word commands and even store some files, at a cost of $10 per
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month, or simply hit a control O.
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One part of the system that works fast and is very convenient is the user
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info. As soon as you type the command CREATE to begin writing a letter, you'll
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be asked who you want to send it to. Enter either the person's last name,
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first initial and last name, or username (which is usually one of the first
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two, but which can be almost anything the user desires). Immediately, you'll
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get a list of everyone with that name, as well as their city and state, which
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often don't fit properly on the line. There are no reports of any wildcards
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that allow you to see everybody at once. (The closest thing is *R, which will
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show all of the user names that you're sending to.) It's also impossible for a
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user not to be seen if you get his name or alias right. It's a good free
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information retrival system. But there's more.
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MCI Mail can also be used as a free word processor of sorts. The sytem will
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allow you to enter a letter, or for that matter, a manuscript. You can then
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hang up and do other things, come back within 24 hours, and your words will
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still be there. You can conceivably list them out using your own printer on a
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fresh sheet of paper and send it through the mail all by yourself, thus sparing
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MCI Mail's la6er printer the trouble. You could also share your account with
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somebody else and constantly leave unsent drafts for each other. Again, they
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have to be retrieved within 24 hours.
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Yet another way of getting "free" service from these people is to obtain
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many different accounts. There doesn't seem to be any kind of a limit on this
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and since each account comes with $2 of free messages, a few accounts can get
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you quite a bit of free service. And, of course, there's no charge for
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receiving messages on any of these accounts.
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2600 has learned of several penetrations onto MCI Mail by hackers. This
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isn't really surprising considering: (a) there are multiple usernames, i.e.
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John Smith's username would always default to JSMITH, which means that several
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passwords can work for one username; (b) all passwords seem to follow a similar
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pattern -- 8 characters with the odd-numbered characters always being
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consonants or vowels -- any true hacker would obtain several accounts and look
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for any correspondence betwwen the random password and the account number
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everyone is assigned; (c) MCI Mail doesn't hand up after repeated tries -- the
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only thing that will make it disconnect intentionally is inactivity on your
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part.
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But by far, the biggest blunder that MCI Mail has made is not found on the
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system. It lies in their bills. There is no carry-over from month to month!
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If you get billed $8 one month and you don't pay it, then proceed to use the
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system for $3 more the next month, your next bill will only show the $3! The
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$8 has vanished! (This is by far the dumbest mistake we have ever reported in
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these pages.)
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You'll find quite a few unanswered quesitons in your travels through MCI
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Mail, which you can try to solve by reading the HELP files or sending a free
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message to MCIHELP. It usually takes them a couple of days to respond to you
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instantly, however.
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There are some software lapses as well. The system seems to be patterned
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largely after GTE Telemail, but it never really reaches that level of clarity.
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A small example can be seen in the scan tables, which have a heading of From,
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Subject, Size, etc. On outbound messages, the name of the person you're
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sending to appears under the From heading! Pretty silly.
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MCI Mail shows every indication of overspending with a passion. Free
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messages, free accounts, sloppy programming, toll-free dialups, single sheets
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of paper (like their bills) sent in huge envelopes, etc. Either they're very
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optimistic out there or they're very naive.
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(MCI Mail can be reached at 8004246677.) <>
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SF][G9:ba003.010585
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[Courtesy of Sherwood Forest ][ -- (914) 359-1517]
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-----End of File
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