Server 2003 causes MSN Messenger 7 to hang

[pun...@gmail.com]

Recently we changed the server box for our LAN to a fresh Windows
Server 2003 box from Windows Server 2000. Now, of a dozen accounts and
computers on the LAN, 2 of them are unable to use MSN Messenger 7.0.
Any attempt to sign in causes the process to hang for seconds or
minutes. If it does sign in, the connection is lost almost immediately
and it hangs again trying to sign in again. Also, any attempt to right
click on the tray icon, or open a Hotmail Inbox causes the same hang.

Things I've tried:

- Full uninstall and reinstall of MSN Messenger 7.0
- Renaming the root registry key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSNMessenger) to force Messenger
to detect the settings again
- Turned off Windows Firewall

I have seen evidence of similar situations mentioned in other posts.
It seems odd that a server OS change for the LAN would cause this, but
there are now 2 systems (running XP Professional SP2, all security
patches) that worked 100% fine until the server change, now they both
exhibit this behavior.

I am anxious to hear some suggestion of what the source of the problem
might be, or any possible solutions/things to try.

Thanks!

Jesse
pun...@gmail.com

[Peter Foldes]

This is not a MSN Messenger issue. It is more of a Win2003 issue. Most likely you set up either the DNS or DHCP server wrong. Did you set a proxy or set DNS to be on all the time

--
Peter

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<pun...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1118264336.3...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...

[pun...@gmail.com]

Hello, thanks for the response. I've found a workaround to share with
whomever it may benefit, although I cannot explain the exact cause of
the problem.

To fix the problem, I did the following:

1. Uninstall Messenger.
2. Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSN Messenger
subtree from the registry. As I mentioned below, I had tried the
LOCAL_MACHINE\...\MSN Messenger subtree earlier, but to no avail.
3. Install Messenger.

This seems to work around whatever data Messenger is caching across
installs, while still preserving the user information such as contact
list. I did lose my display picture, but I'll live :)

To anyone having this problem where the above solution didn't work, I
would also suggest moving\deleting the Documents and
Settings\Application Data\<user>\MSN Messenger folder -- it is also
preserved across installs and could be the source of the problem.

Good luck and godspeed (which is 132.74 km/s for our metric users)

Jesse