Shoutbox

skitz, the problem with you is that u can't set up a direct connection to transfer the display pictures. I get this too sometimes but it gets fixed later automatically; I presume it has something to do with either you or your contact being unable to host. (Set up a connection). Normally the msn messenger hotmail server should host instead then, but there's some very odd things going on there. I don't see any logic in the protocol anymore; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Bottom line is; make sure your pc can host and you'll probably fix your problems.

Now, since you said the problem just occured, it might be reasonable to assume that you have a worm / trojan / virus / .. running on your pc which prevents it from making proper connections. Check your machine first, I'd advice 'The Cleaner' from 'Moosoft' :
<a href="http://www.moosoft.com/products/cleaner/download/">get it here</a>

If that doesn't resolve your problem; then you will need to investigate deeper into your network settings. If you have a router, firewall (hardware (a box) or software (a program)), gateway, proxy, .. you will need to try and configure that to allow for it to let your pc host msn connections. These devices are something that's connected between your internet modem and your pc :

INTERNET ===>== MODEM ===>== ROUTER / ... ===>== YOUR PC

if you have a router, you'll need to set it up; if not, then that can't be the cause of your problems. If you need to set it up; you'll need to get it to forward these ports :
IN TCP 6891 - 6900
IN TCP 1863
IN UDP 1863
IN UDP 5190
IN UDP 6901
IN TCP 6901
(IN means, the forward lets data enter your pc over the given port. TCP means the data uses the TCP protocol; just like UDP...)

Good luck.

Edit:
You said you can't connect to kazaa / winmx etc either ? Then yes, something is definately wrong with your connection. If not a virus, then you'll need to forward more ports (these only allow msn messenger to establish connections to people properly; not kazaa etc.) I don't know the port numbers for kazaa; just do a google search for "forward ports kazaa" or something like that.