> >almost every webmail
> >service is blocked by work these days
>
> Why?
I think a lot of places do this because the webmail services can't get messages virus-scanned easily. Big IT departments have spent mucho bucks and time trying to keep virii out of the enterprise. When one of those "send a copy to everyone in your address book" gets loose in a place that gives everyone 500 employees on your address book, suddenly email stops working for an hour while the mail server chokes on it's own vomit.
It's been abused, and many users just won't learn not to click that thing that no one they know told them to click . . .
The last big place I was at would routinely have these virus storms (I pity the people who carried text pagers: 150 copies of a virus to your pager and your thumbs will be tired for a week) until they blocked outside email. The number of repeat offenders was truely staggering.
Those who knew how to get around the blocking were fine (i.e., it wasn't some "pig boss" scheme, it was really just a convenience for the local IT shop).
/jordan