Hi, I've hit a rather puzzling problem, and I was wondering if anyone could help me out.
I woke up this morning to find that my MSN Messenger wouldn't sign in. I tried to check the server status, to find that page wouldn't work either. Indeed, all of MSN.com won't work. I thought I'd check my Hotmail account anyway, to find that that too, doesn't work. Basically, most microsoft related webpages refuse to load (though, interestingly enough, microsoft.com works just fine, but the support page does not). The rest of the internet runs perfectly, the problem only affects certain microsoft pages.
I uninstalled and reinstalled MSN with no effect. I uninstalled Internet Explorer and tried to reinstall, but the installation program just hangs and freezes when it tries to connect to the server.
I've scanned for viruses with two different antivirus programs (Norton and PC-Cillin) with no results, and scanned for spyware with two different programs (Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy), and cleaned off everything they found. The problem still hasn't gone, though.
The error message I get when trying to load MSN Messenger is:
"We could not sign you into MSN Messenger. It appears you are behind a firewall that does not allow direct connection to the Internet. We tried to sign you in through an HTTP proxy, but your Internet Explorer proxy settings are either missing or incorrect. To adjust your IE proxy settings, click the IE Tools menu, click Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings."
Note that I don't have a firewall at all, let alone one that doesn't allow connection to the Internet. I have never had a firewall installed, so I really don't know what it's talking about.
I don't get an error when trying to connect to Hotmail or MSN.com through Internet Explorer, it just doesn't load the page. But through AOL's browser, the error for MSN.com is:
"Web Site Not Responding
The web site you have requested may be experiencing technical difficulties due to a busy or broken server.
Please try again by clicking the Reload icon on your navigation bar or, if that doesn't work, you may want to return to the site at a later time.
502 Connection Hangup"
and for Hotmail.com through AOL's browser, the error is:
"569 No Data
This Web page could not be opened with the specified browser request. Please try again later."
and the error message I get for both Hotmail.com and MSN.com with Opera is simply:
"Could not locate remote server"
As I said, the rest of the internet works fine, it's just these microsoft pages and programs which won't work.
Due to the error messages, I thought the sites themselves might be down, but I checked the same pages on my housemate's computer, and they worked without a problem. It's only on my PC they don't seem to load.
I have absolutely no idea what the problem is, and other than simply wait, I haven't got a clue what to try. Does anybody have any suggestions at all? I'd greatly appreciate any help that you guys can give me. I'm at my wits end.
Thanks in advance (I hope!)
I woke up this morning to find that my MSN Messenger wouldn't sign in. I tried to check the server status, to find that page wouldn't work either. Indeed, all of MSN.com won't work. I thought I'd check my Hotmail account anyway, to find that that too, doesn't work. Basically, most microsoft related webpages refuse to load (though, interestingly enough, microsoft.com works just fine, but the support page does not). The rest of the internet runs perfectly, the problem only affects certain microsoft pages.
I uninstalled and reinstalled MSN with no effect. I uninstalled Internet Explorer and tried to reinstall, but the installation program just hangs and freezes when it tries to connect to the server.
I've scanned for viruses with two different antivirus programs (Norton and PC-Cillin) with no results, and scanned for spyware with two different programs (Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy), and cleaned off everything they found. The problem still hasn't gone, though.
The error message I get when trying to load MSN Messenger is:
"We could not sign you into MSN Messenger. It appears you are behind a firewall that does not allow direct connection to the Internet. We tried to sign you in through an HTTP proxy, but your Internet Explorer proxy settings are either missing or incorrect. To adjust your IE proxy settings, click the IE Tools menu, click Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings."
Note that I don't have a firewall at all, let alone one that doesn't allow connection to the Internet. I have never had a firewall installed, so I really don't know what it's talking about.
I don't get an error when trying to connect to Hotmail or MSN.com through Internet Explorer, it just doesn't load the page. But through AOL's browser, the error for MSN.com is:
"Web Site Not Responding
The web site you have requested may be experiencing technical difficulties due to a busy or broken server.
Please try again by clicking the Reload icon on your navigation bar or, if that doesn't work, you may want to return to the site at a later time.
502 Connection Hangup"
and for Hotmail.com through AOL's browser, the error is:
"569 No Data
This Web page could not be opened with the specified browser request. Please try again later."
and the error message I get for both Hotmail.com and MSN.com with Opera is simply:
"Could not locate remote server"
As I said, the rest of the internet works fine, it's just these microsoft pages and programs which won't work.
Due to the error messages, I thought the sites themselves might be down, but I checked the same pages on my housemate's computer, and they worked without a problem. It's only on my PC they don't seem to load.
I have absolutely no idea what the problem is, and other than simply wait, I haven't got a clue what to try. Does anybody have any suggestions at all? I'd greatly appreciate any help that you guys can give me. I'm at my wits end.
Thanks in advance (I hope!)
