AT&T bans anonymous messages

[Adam Shostack]

Hal wrote:
| WorldNet User <anonymous-user at worldnet.att.net> writes:
| >>From the "AT&T WorldNet Service Operating Policies":

| (I can't get through to http://www.worldnet.att.net this morning.  Makes
| me appreciate that dial tone I get every day.)

Try http://www.att.com/worldnet/

| Is the WorldNet service an Internet access account, providing dial-in
| SLIP or PPP access?  Or does it also provide user accounts like shell
| accounts or like AOL?

	The AT&T service I'm familiar with (some contract work on the
back end) is what they call 'Internet Dial Tone,' which is to say, a
IP connection and nothing else.  Its a way to reach your home system,
or, if you can find a freindly DNS server, surf the web.  They talk
about adding other things later.

	The phrase Internet Dial tone appears on the att.com page.
How they intend to authenticate hundreds of thousands of dialup users
to prevent anonymity is beyond me.

	(Hals points on the ambiguity of the language are well taken.)

Adam



-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume