I know - in all and sincere truthfulness, sweet FA about the Windows System. I've never been against it - because in all honesty, I only used it briefly, just as Win 95 came out. I have VPC running Win 2000 Pro on one of my machines, yet I'd enter that - ooooo - ever so rarely.

Stop beating round the bush CW.
Yes - Okay.

In the attempt to help the friend of a friend of a.... well you get the picture, I believe they have downloaded something called MSN Messenger 7.5 for Windows 2000 - or XP, and they can't log-in to their account. They have something called: Windows MSN Messenger - and they have a Yahoo account - and they can log into Windows MSN Messenger, no problem.

When they attempt to log into MSN 7.5 (the latest apparently), the following message appears:

Sorry, we were unable to sign you in to the Msn Messenger at this time. Please try again later. Msn Messenger has made several failed attempts to sign you in. Your firewall may be blocking Messenger from connecting to the service. Please review your firewall settings. See the retailer's instructions for more information. 80048820

Now - I'm not a complete idiot (though some might argue this & are welcome to) so I figure it's either a Firewall Port error - and I've googled parts of this message.

Turns out this error message exists in vastness, even with people who know their PC Stuff pretty darn well. Like Mac-Talk, there are huge forums on just this subject, yet the final conclusions to this error message are either hit and misses, or all end rather ambiguous. Some answers appear to have worked in threads - but not for everyone.

Samples:

http://www.mcse.ms/archive271-2005-9-1845124.html

http://imunplugged.spaces.live.com/Blog/cn...!2073.entry

http://imunplugged.spaces.live.com/

http://imunplugged.spaces.live.com/Blog/cn...!2073.entry

In fact, if one copies that error message (or any sentence of it) into google, one is faced with zillions of threads and forums in plague proportions, yet tis interesting to note that even on PC Help Forums, no one will ever say: Here is the answers. It's always, this "should" work. If it doesn't, move onto Step 2. If Step 2 doesn't work - and so on.

PC Users who have and comprehensive understandings of their 1080 Port and whatever Firewalls they've installed are having the above problem, and it appears that the later part of the error message: Please review your firewall settings. - is some sort of red herring - bollocks thrown in by.... well - you-know-who.

I've run several of the "claim to work solutions" past the friend of a friend and they've tried them to no avail. This person and the person connected to them - connected to me, don't know how their PCs work, and nor do I. Alot of the solutions, though they differ slightly, appear to be extremely simple - even though no conclusion is ever truly reached.

Do we have one clever bunny of a PC User here who's encountered this error message, and knows the idiot's guide to solving it?

Any constructive and simple help would be appreciated.

cheers,

ClockWork

First, download and install Windows Live Messenger from here.
That's the latest version. You can safely remove MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger after installing that.

Try and connect, if it works, great.
If not, go to the Preferences, and there should be an Advanced or Connections tab - in there is some kind of troubleshooting tool. It should be able to tell you what's wrong...

Or better yet get them to switch to Trillian or another tool.

I used to get the same error messages back in the days of 'doze'. Sometimes uninstalling and then reinstalling the app with a fresh download worked (MS are oddly delivering new builds but not versions of their IM software all the time).

Or try Live Messenger as suggested.

Dangelovich & Thor: I've emailed your words - Dangel: "If not, go to the Preferences, and there should be an Advanced or Connections tab - in there is some kind of troubleshooting tool. It should be able to tell you what's wrong..." - they might not know how to do that... they aren't - as savvy as I am on a Mac - put it that way.

Thor: Is Trillian Video enabled / compatible? I believe they're after the full perks that MSN 7.5 claims to provide a PC dude.



cw

Windows Live Messenger is probably their best bet. I only used Trillian very briefly and it was a couple of versions ago, but I don't believe that it was compatible with MSN/Windows Live audio and video.

Yeah no video/audio as far as I can tell.

If they are desperate they can try Mercury at mercury.to. Runs on Java and is cross platform with some extra perks MSN doesn't have like ghost friends (see who really likes you).

But definitely go with Live Messenger as a workaround if not otherwise.

Messenger is a buggy piece of crap on both OS's. I have had this happen to me on occasion as well, or something of the sort.
dangelovichs advice is the best in my opinion. Get windows live and there'll be a 50/50 chance it will work. MSN blocks some older versions from connecting, insisting that you must upgrade... maybe it has something to do with that.

I recently installed the latest messenger 6 for mac and it would not connect at all, ever. So I had to replace it with the previous version again. Bloody stupid.

It never (how absorbed are we?????) realized that Mercury may be available for Windows.... searching....

ummm... is Mercury available to Windows? and if so... where ? - no mention on virgin tracker - Mercury for Windows - links to planet sites - Am I a bit of a thicky with certain things? Yes...

Dangelovichs message has been posted word for word. Copy / Paste.

I quite like Mercury - with all it's sneaky lil' abilities to see if your friend has temporarily Blocked one, or not :P - in the excuse "shit look at the time! gotta go now!"

Switch to Mercury - or as I like to call it - Preditor Mode - to reveal in X-ray vision, the facts... he he he...

Oh - wait - here: http://www.mercury.to/index.php?page=Downloads

next to windows, it doesn't say: HTTP
it sayeth: Torrent

What's the difference?

cheers,

CW

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ClockWork @ Oct 12 2006, 12:39 PM) [snapback]223862[/snapback]</div>i think ive found the problem try lavalife or match.com. those might help you find some.... er wait, you mean versiontracker.com

also, the different between HTTP and torrent is the method of download.

HTTP refers to inline links available on webpages.

torrents are a filesharing file type that allow you to download in a P2P style fashion. uTorrent on a PC or Acquisition on a Mac are good torrent handlers.

W2ttsy

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HDriveKilla @ Oct 12 2006, 08:58 AM) [snapback]223848[/snapback]</div>Go for 6.0.1 - it apparently fixes that problem you mention.

CW - yeah it's also in a Windows build. Its a Java app so it does Windows if you have JVM or MS's version of the JVM installed.

The guy uses torrent downloads for Mercury to reduce his monthly bandwidth costs.

http://mirror.tuxhosting.net/mercury...ry1_8Setup.exe

Link to Mercury 1.8 from his site on the right hand side of the page?

I hope he gets it working.

PS - this isnt that friend of yours from a while ago who popped up on messenger then disappeared again and you thought might be someone else????

Go to the 'Internet Options' control panel, click on the 'Advanced' tab. Scroll down to the bottom.

Make sure the following items are UNCHECKED in the 'Security' section:
- Check for server certificate revocation (requires restart)
- Use TLS 1.0

Click OK when done. Click on the 'Connections' tab. Click the 'LAN Settings' button. Ensure that 'Automatically detect settings is CHECKED, and that 'Use a proxy server for your LAN' is UNCHECKED (unless you are part of a large LAN and your IT people set it up this way, or your ISP specifically asks you to add proxy settings).

Click 'Apply' then 'OK.

Try Messenger again.


Brains

Mr. Brains,

Are those instructions for MSN 7.5 ?

cheers,

Mr. ClockWork

Those are just generic settings for internet connectivity on a Windows machine.

Making sure the correct SSL protocol is used (ie SSlv2 or v3 and not TLS) and also so disable any proxies that may be in the way (which can also impact connectivity)

But you see - if I don't understand this (and I don't because I don't use Windows), then the f of an f of an f who is computer illiterate - is def. not going to understand this if I just Copy / Paste it over to them.

PS: Still awaiting feed back from Dangelovich's suggestion. People with problems take forever, don't they? It must all be about how terribly important it is to them... :P

cheers,

cw

Revised for the totally clueless:

1) Get a Macintosh. If this is unfeasible, go to 2) :P

2) Click the Start button at the lower left, go up to 'Settings' and then to 'Control Panel' (or straight to 'Control Panel' - this will vary depending on how the user has their start menu configured)

Go to the 'Internet Options' control panel.

Click on the 'Advanced' tab. Scroll down to the bottom.

Make sure the following items are UNCHECKED in the 'Security' section:
- Check for server certificate revocation (requires restart)
- Use TLS 1.0

Click OK when done. Click on the 'Connections' tab. Click the 'LAN Settings' button. Ensure that 'Automatically detect settings is CHECKED, and that 'Use a proxy server for your LAN' is UNCHECKED (unless you are part of a large LAN and your IT people set it up this way, or your ISP specifically asks you to add proxy settings).

Click 'Apply' then 'OK.

Try Messenger again.

3) if 2) does not work, see 1)

:P


Brains