Having Connection Problems or Crashes?

A few days ago, we announced that we were upgrading all users on Windows XP
and later operating systems to Windows Live Messenger 8.1. Since then, a
large number of users have been successfully upgraded and are happily using
our latest client. (Actually, most users were already on 8.1.) However,
several of our users are having problems after installing the upgrade. The
Messenger team wants you to know that we hear you and are working as fast as
we can to fix these issues.

***** Having Connection Problems? *****
If you’re having problems connecting to Messenger and/or sending IM’s, we
encourage you to try the some of the following suggestions:

1. Make sure that your firewall is properly configured to allow Windows Live
Messenger 8.1 to function properly.

Behind a corporate firewall: The 8.1 client uses far more web services, and
it is possible that the network administrator for the corporate firewall will
need to put a few more URLs on their web address white list. The client
needs to send web requests to “*.hotmail.com�, “*.live.com�, and “*.msn.com�.
(The asterisk (*) is a “wildcard� character meaning that anything can come
before “live.com�.) Your network/ firewall admin will understand this jargon
if they see it.

On your PC at home: Many personal firewall products learn what a client does
on the network, sometimes asking the user for permission to allow the
applications to access the Internet and then remembering these answers.
When the new client changes its network behavior, some personal firewall
products don't learn fast enough about how to let the client function
properly on the network. To test this you can temporarily turn off your
firewall and see if you can sign-in. Be sure you turn the personal firewall
back on after your experiment. If you can sign-in, then it is likely that
your personal firewall needs to reconfigure itself. Many products allow you
to see the list of filters it is using, and by removing the filter entries
for messenger (or msnmsgr.exe) you can force the personal firewall to re-ask
you for permission to grant the required network access to the new 8.1
Messenger client. Sometimes you have to let the client fail a few times
while the firewall is learning, and then restart the client.

2. Try to using the Connection Troubleshooter (you don’t have to login to
Messenger to do this). You can find it in Messenger -> Tools -> Options ->
Connection tab.

3. If you are using a proxy server, click on ‘Advanced Settings’ and
configure the proxy settings.

4. If IE is NOT set as your default browser, launch IE (you don’t have to
set it as default) and visit any webpage to make sure that the internet
connectivity and network configurations are properly set.

***** Is Messenger Crashing? *****
If you are using Windows Vista, you may encounter crashes if you don’t have
the latest version of Adobe Flash installed. You can install the latest
version of Adobe Flash at
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/downl...h&promoid=BIOW.

If you have a computer manufactured by Acer, you may be using Acer
eDataSecurity software. Please upgrade to the latest version at
http://global.acer.com/support/winvista/t-faq.htm.

***** Error Codes *****
For more information on specific error codes, please visit the Messenger
Support Space. You’ll find lots of information and troubleshooting tips there.

***** More Updates to Come *****
Check back here often for updates on other issues. If you’re having a
problem, please post in the newsgroups! The benefit of posting your issues on
the newsgroups rather than as blog comments is that we are able to reply to
your newsgroup post directly and connect with you if we need more information
about your particular issue.