Thiago Bellini's homepage Free software development, Open source software, Linux – by Thiago Bellini

How Hotmail prevented me from getting online on my ICQ account

I know that you are thinking "Hotmail and ICQ? What's the connection between them?"..and, well, let me tell what happened!

I was configuring my IM accounts on Empathy, the default IM client on Ubuntu, when I saw that it supports the ICQ protocol. It has been at least 8 years that I stopped using my ICQ and I decided to login in my account to see what was going on there. Even not using it for a long time, I still remember my ICQ number. The problem came when I tried to remember my password. I was 12 years old when I created it =/

But, ok, it isn't the end of the world. That situation is easy to solve! I just had to use the password recovery system on ICQ page. The only problem: They sent the information of how-to reset my password to the e-mail that was registered in my account. And yes, 8 years ago I was a hotmail user. Do not crucify me! I was a child, didn't know what I was doing =(

Like my ICQ password, I have no idea of what the hell was my hotmail password. The solution, again, was to use the password recovery system on hotmail's page. It asked for my e-mail and a captcha. So, I went with: foo_bar@hotmail.com (I'm not going to show the real alias because it was REALLY stupid! I was 12 =P. Just using "foo_bar" to show the example). What I got after this? That will make you laugh:

"Password reset instructions were sent to: foo_bar@hotmail.com.

If you don't see the e-mail message in your inbox, look for it in your junk mail folder or check your e-mail again later."

FAIL!!!!!

If you can't understand the fail, take a look at the e-mail I was trying to recover the password and the e-mail they sent the password reset instructions....got it? ;D

So, that's how Microsoft and Hotmail developers f***ed with the only way I had to login on my old ICQ account. I'll try other ways and hope to get online soon! If someday I success, the user #176444719 will be online again!!!