MSN revisited… or not
MSN has become a mildly amusing service. According to this thread on the Opera forums, Opera users are being sent a HTTP/500 Server too busy error if they want to visit msn.com, while users of other browsers can get in just fine.
I had to test, and the message reads:
Sorry, due to heavy traffic on the network, the page you’re trying to reach is temporarily unavailable.
You can: Wait a few minutes and try again. Click your browser’s Refresh button now to try reconnecting. Click your browser’s Back button to return to the previous page.
I then tested with other browsers, like Mozilla, IE and Lynx and got in. Microsoft and MSN have a history of shooting themselves with inethical anticompetitive behavior. I don’t have too many doubts they’re firing another round of .45 in their feet.
Update: Apparently, this error seems to be incompetence, deliberate or not. This message in opera.general reveals that this is an issue with msn.com’s handling of the HTTP Accept Language header Opera is sending.
Comments
Comment from Jess on 2003-05-22 23:16
Just stumbled across this while googling “msn - server too busy”.
Today is May 22… I have IE 5.5 and get the same error while going to MSN.
I don’t think it’s just for Opera users. I guess the fat lady hasn’t sung yet. ;-)
(sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Jess
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