Error 999 is a sign that Yahoo's defense is in effect.
"This error appears to be a "catch-all" error code that Yahoo serves up when it doesn't have a more specific error code. It essentially means "Oops! Something went wrong but we don't know what, so we'll just say that Error 999 occurred."
The most common reason for receiving Yahoo Error 999 is due to some sort of bandwidth limiting system that Yahoo has put in place on their servers. Once you have exceeded your allotted bandwidth for a specific period of time Yahoo gives you this Error 999 message and doesn't allow you to access the service. People have primarily reported receiving this error when they try to access Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Groups, but other Yahoo services may also be affected.
Why has Yahoo done this? There are two reasons that I can think of:
- To prevent DoS (Denial of Service) attacks.
- To stop automated tasks from hammering their servers with hundreds of requests a second.
There are many programs around that offer to automate access to various Yahoo services, i.e. check your Yahoo mailbox every 5 minutes, archive Yahoo Groups messages, download files from the Yahoo Groups Photos and Files sections, etc. If you use one of these automated tools then there is a very real possibility that you will run into the Error 999 message. Normal human usage of the Yahoo services shouldn't normally generate enough
traffic to trigger the Error 999 message unless you're a very heavy user.
It appears that Yahoo uses your
IP address to track the amount of traffic you're generating on Yahoo, and once you reach the limit you get blocked by the
Unable to process request at this time -- error 999 message. Once triggered you will find that your IP address has been blocked for a period of time, somewhere between 2 and 24 hours usually
Resolution Steps:Clear your browser's cookies and cache (temporary files).
2.Log into Yahoo through a different country's server. I.e. if you usually log into Yahoo via http://login.yahoo.com/ then try http://login.korea.yahoo.com/ or http://login.europe.yahoo.com/.
If you use a proxy server then try turning it off.
Good. Because Yahoo appears to be using your IP address to track your traffic usage, switching off your proxy (or bypassing your ISP's proxy server and accessing the web directly) will result in you accessing Yahoo via a different IP address (i.e. you will be accessing Yahoo via your real IP address and not via the proxy server's IP address). Thus Yahoo will think you're a different person because you're using a different IP address.
If you're using a dial-up modem or some other access method that results in you using a dynamic IP address, try disconnecting from the Internet and waiting a few minutes and then reconnecting.
Use a different browser,if you have a web accelerator turn it off
hope this helps
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