hello I received a reply from MSN Messenger Monday Jan 16/06 and here is part of their reply:”MSN Messenger server is currently having a small outage which is currently causing this issue as of this time. How ever we assure you that this outage only temporary and a permanent fix will be available as soon as possible.

I had e-mailed them and stated that I had followed their “solutions” to no avail, did some checking and that the problem seemed to be with them. this is of no paticualr help but thought it may be interesting to read
Laura5333