Other people tried at the same time and had no issues. I still can't login, it connects fine but authentication fails, so it's not maintainance...

So, I can't seem to connect to this, can anyone confirm if it's working?

Still works, for me anyway.

Interesting, because for me in IE it asks for credentials and in filezilla it erors with 530, home directory inaccesible.

For me, works too... Now, some days ago not working for me, it ask username and password

That's odd. Did you enter your email adress as password?

Also, same thing when I want to connect with Filezilla:

Maybe try to use another mail address?

Nothing works for me... In ftp.exe, I can't even type anything as a password and leaving it blank results in 530.

As password, I didn't entry anything, in blank

@DeFacto; DaveGee: Then your IP probably got a ban.

Think it has to do with the e-mail one use. If I use one I created for log-ins (@gmail) it gives me the same error as those that struggle to connect. I tried using a "fake" e-mail address and got in.

Works fine over here.

Just connect to: ftp.microsoft.com
User: anonymous
Pass: <empty> THIS MEANS NO PASSWORD!!

If it fails it can be either that you're IP has been banned from that server because leeching (you or a previous owner), or there are to many connections to that server.

Hmm. The FTP works fine for me right now.

From what it looks like, only some people can connect to it, and there doesn't seem to be any reason why. Basically, there are three possibilities: you can't connect at all, you need a password, or you don't need anything at all, you can just enter freely.

When I first tried connecting, I was in the 2nd group, but now I'm in the third. It's odd how that happened, but oh well.

Just so you know, there's really nothing of note in the FTP at all. The most interesting thing would have been a huge amount of obsolete support articles, but they seem to have been wiped from it, and put into the main support site.

Aaaand just tried getting somewhere now, and I'm back in the second group. Well, that was fun while it lasted. Still, it's really odd why it does that. I mean, if you want to try and connect, then go ahead, but there's really no point.

ALSO: Connecting as anonymous with no password doesn't work over here. I say "over here" because it might work for someone else, but it doesn't seem like it.

There aren't any groups. When you cannot access the server, there is a chance you were banned.
Also, as said before, the obsolete KB was from Win2.x era, so there isn't any point to add it to the main support site.

Today, by example, isn't working for me, it asks credentials...

It is working fine for me over here - using Firefox to access it and having no trouble at all

Well, the fact that I couldn't access it before, and then I could, and then I couldn't again does seem a bit strange. Why would I be unbanned from the FTP only to be banned again?

Then again, I suppose I couldn't be unbanned from something if I was never banned in the first place... but if I wasn't banned, then how come I couldn't... Okay this is getting really confusing let's stop now.



Oh. Huh. I suppose that explains that, although there are articles that go back all the way to Windows 95 on the main support site. Like this one, referring to Microsoft Mail 1.0 and how to get the thing to work. Now, I don't know when they put that article on the main support site, but considering the last review was in 2004, I reckon it's close to that. Possibly.



Presumably, the IP has been banned. It's weird why they're banning IPs at all from the FTP, considering they really don't have much to hide and it's never used any more anyway. Then again, I'm not sure it matters too much.

Oh, Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft, why do you riddle us this way,
Your FTP's odd when it decides to kick users or let them stay.

/randomcouplet

It seems to automatically ban IP addresses.

I can now finally access it. Seems like I'm often assigned a banned IP...

During one internet session, or were you able to access it with one IP, and not the other. Since most people have dynamic IPs, you could randomly be assigned with a banned IP, or one thats not banned.



They don't ban IPs because they need to hide something, they ban IPs due to abuse. I know the Microsoft FTP was down some time last year, and that could have been due to some form of abuse, which would have forced Microsoft to increase their security measures.


On what grounds?

But yesterday it worked fine again... It's a rare thing

I can't get onto it from FileZilla, but XP's built in FTP accesses it fine