Shoutbox

What you are describing are the 'older' status icons from Messenger. Messenger Plus! still uses them in the Desktop Contacts feature.

A red filled circle with a horizontal white line through it, is a traffic sign. It means the contact's status is 'Busy' or 'On the Phone'.

A red outlined circle with a diagonal red line through it, is the international prohibition symbol. It means the contact is bocked.

A small clock as an overlay on the green buddy icon means the status of the contact is either 'Away', 'Idle', 'Be Right Back' or 'Out to Lunch'.

The blue circle, as you describe it, as an overlay is actually a world globe, and it means the contact has signed in using Web Messenger.

Also see here:
http://help.msn.com/Help.aspx?project=Messengerw1...boutYourStatus.htm

Note that the statusses 'Be Right Back', 'Out to Lunch' and 'On the Phone' still exist (for backward compatibility), though you can not set them anymore nativly in Messenger.

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If these aren't the icons you're talking about, then we really need a screenshot to see what you're on about. And as djdannyp suggested, you need to check if you haven't got a skin installed in that case. And also, tell us your exact and complete Windows Live Messenger version (you can find it in the About window).