quote:
Originally posted by Mike
So why didn't they just block messages containing the bad link (you know, like the stupid filter that blocks messages containing "download.php")? Are there many links that link to the virus?
There are extremely many links being send which lead to malware and other shit (think of all those "
I saw your picture here" stuff which is around since years). Hence they introduced this method of relay linking some while ago so they can filter out those bad links in a pro-active way (by disabling hotlinking for those links).
But only now, there seems to be a realy bad thing going around which made them disable this direct hotlinking (that is the active clickable hyperlinks) all together since they haven't found a good solid way to filter out those random worm links and leave the safe links alone (so I've been told though - but it does make some sense).
PS: WLM2011 works in a slithly different way in this regards, so it isn't effected in that links are still clickable, but you'll get a warning in your browser from the Smartscreen filtering.
Although it may seem very annoying, such a protection method is actually a very effective way against the still increasing threat of IM malware/worms/virusses. Most IM malware spreads exactly because people still click without thinking on active links nomatter how they look like.
But, yeah, in certain cases it is extremely annoying and might even brake the links, especially for 'power' users, but those are a minority actually. And as with so many things: the majority dictate the rules.
PS: kabso 5, no, Messenger conversations have never been P2P, they always go thru Messenger's servers.