Why Ain't MSN Working?

Dorothy, would you mind going into a little more detail?

Sure Letty.

When I try to sign in a window comes up that says something like

"signing into MSN messenger failed because the service is temporarily unavailable please try again later. 81000314 "

There are 3 options "retry" (which doesn't work) "cancel" and "help"

x

Aha! Then you mean instant messenger. Okay. I'll try myself.

Working here in Florida, U.S.A., Dorothy, but I have heard many complaints about MSN IM. I don't think it has anything to do with 9/11, however.

Ok thanks Letty.

x

How to fix Winodws Messenger Live and ZoneAlarms problems!
I gave this advice on another post here.

If you're using Windows Messenger Live and you have ZoneAlarm(firewall) thats where you have your fault.

To solve either:

1) Download MSN Messenger 7.5 and it will all work again you just won't be able to use Windows Messenger Live till ZA fixes their compatability problems.

2) If you're able to open a document and add some text and close it then you should attempt to use this tutorial I found on the net:

"Proceeding with this Tutorial is something YOU CHOOSE to do! I am not held responsible for what ever goes wrong. Only for the things that go Good and Right! It probably also infringes Zone Alarms T&C's for editing a part of their software, so use this tutorial at your own will!

EDIT: Disable IMSecure before proceeding with this tutorial. Go to Zone Alarm Security Suite, Press IM Security (Left Hand Side), and drag the Protection Level down to 'Off'.

Also, ensure that you DO NOT UPGRADE Zone Alarm unless you really have to (I don't mean the Virus and Spyware Updates!!). It will set those files back to what they were again before. Infact, some upgrades will be neccessary, so I suggest that you Bookmark this page for future reference!

Okay All this has to be done in Safe Mode so you may want to print it out or save it!

[If you are planning on doing this print of the below text now or save it as a document to your desktop]

1) Boot into SAFE MODE. It's usually Holding F8 During Startup!

2) Navigate to the Folder "C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs" (Or where ever your system directory is!) CREATE A FOLDER CALLED BACKUPS!

3) Okay; You will be Moving some Files and Folders away (In Case you need to restore a Backup), and Editing some XML Files (In Notepad). Keep Backups of all of these in the folder created in Step 2 !

Files for Editing = 'Streamapi.config.xml', 'ZLCommDB.xml', and 'osfwrules.xml'
Files & Folders for Moving = 'imSecure.dll' and 'streamapi\imslsp'

4) Okay Lets start with Streamapi.config.xml. This, and all of the Files can be found from "C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs"

Open this File in Notepad (Please don't ask me HOW!). You will see a Line like this:

<plugin>

Delete that Line, and save the File (Use CTRL + S)

5) ZLCommDB.xml -- You will see something very similar to this:

<pl_313BF13F>
<CLASSES>
<class0>
<class1>
<class10>
<class11>
<class12>
<class13>
<class14>
<class15>
<class16>
<class17>
<class18>
<class2>
<class3>
<class4>
<class5>
<class6>
<class7>
<class8>
<class9>
</CLASSES>
</pl_313BF13F>

That all needs to come out. Ensure that you remove the enitre block <pl_> all the way to the bottom <pl_>. The *************** Will be identical number/letter sequences, so it'll be easy to work out what do delete!!

6) Nest File, osfwrules.xml

Okay there are 4 Lines of code to remove from this file. Again, opened in Notepad, find these:

<itementry>

<itementry>


<itementry>

<itementry>

Delete them all, then Save!

REMEMBER THIS MUST ALL BE DONE IN SAFE MODE - THE FILES ARE LOCKED BY THE SYSTEM!

7) Moving Files:

Okay, in C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs, there is a file named imsecure.dll! Move that to the Folder we created called BACKUPS (Step 2!) in case you need to restore it should there be a problem.

Again, back in C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs, there is a folder called 'streamapi' with a subfolder called 'imslsp'. You want to move 'imslsp' and all its contents to the 'BACKUPS' Folder. BUT LEAVE 'streamapi' there, otherwise you'll screw your Firewall!

Okay. All Done!

Restart the PC, no need to put it in Safe Mode again (Duh!) and it should all be Fixed!

If only Programs did what we set them to do (In this Case; DISABLE IMsecure)

Have Fun all. I hoped it helped you!"

It worked for me so good luck on you all!

OMG Raener. Thank you for that. Don't have a single clue what you are talking about but thank you anyway.

x

I got the same error message DP, but it righted itself when I restarted...

It is very possible problems with the messaging client provider's network will have impact - that's usually transitory and short-lived. If problems persist, however, its time to look elsewhere.

Though firewall settings can affect messaging/chat client functionality (as can Internet Options settings), in most instances either the firewall iself will recognize a mainstream major-player client and automatically grant necessary permissions or will prompt the user and recommend appropriate user input. A quick check to see if the problem is firewall-related is to temporarily turn off the firewall and see what happens; if the problem goes away, you know where most likely it came from.

A while back, there was a Zone Alarm glitch affecting older versions of Microsoft messaging clients, however Zone Labs corrected that pretty quickly and Microsoft's own updates to its messaging client eliminated the problem's trigger anyway. That's one of the reason staying current with ALL updates generally is a good idea.

As snood discovered, rebooting often will correct messaging client errors. Sometimes all thats necessary is to close, exit, and reopen the client, but a reboot is, IMO, the better way to go for a number of reasons. Not infrequently, problems will stem from settings in the client itself; it often pays to look there if you're having trouble. A last resort option is to uninstall/reinstall the messaging client itself, though rarely does it come to that.

Yeah it's been fine since.

However, something else very strange happened on my computer; all The Smiths tracks in the library of Windows media player simply vanished. There were about 7 Smiths tracks in there that I had listened to on numerous occasions and they were kept in my playlist but when I went to listen to one the other day they were ALL gone.

What the hell is that all about?? And why just The Smiths?? Nothing else had been affected. Had to download them all again.

x

Prolly has something to do with Halloween. :wink: