Shoutbox

Hi there, my brother's WLM is refusing to sign in. We've already tried uninstalling/reinstalling it, doing the HKEY/.../MSNMessenger removal from the registry to wipe the settings clean and all that, basically I've tried everything I can find as explenations from various forums, and still it won't sign in.

We've also tried signing into one of the various Web Messenger services and it worked fine.

WLM sits on the sign in page for about one minute and then says the following error message;

"We were unable to sign you into Windows Live Messenger at this time. Please try again later.

Windows Live Messenger has made several failed attempts to sign you in. Your firewall may be blocking Windows Live Messenger from connection t othe service. Please review your firewall settings. See the  retailer's instructions for more information.

Error code: 80072efd"

Now the thing is,there is no Firewall beyond the Windows Firewall, which already has WLM on its Exceptions list. Also he was able to sign into WLM last night with no problems. He says he hasn't changed any of his settings or installed anything new, so right now we're stumped.

Any help that you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Try to use MSN E-Fix ( [removed] ) or MSN Repair 2.0 ( [removed] ).

[Moderator edit: links removed due to suspicions that those programs are malicious]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lukychan
Try to use MSN E-Fix or MSN Repair 2.0

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It is nice that you try to help but please do not suggest to people to run very dodgy tools like that. Tools which you do not know what they do (and believe me, they do a lot of stuff which might again damage other stuff or change stuff which should NOT be changed). They are a security risk imho....

For starters, when I look at MSN E-Fix's binary hex data (after unpacking it with UPX) I can clearly see some dodgy stuff to say the very least. Stuff which I do NOT expect to be in such fixing tools. There could be legit reasons why they include what they include, but I find it very suspecious for such tools nevertheless

Furthermore, there are official tutorials on what to do when you get a particular error number. And those tools you link to will certainly NOT do what is described on those official tutorials, even if those tools are legit.

Also, there are already many posts on this forum (and other forums) handling error 80072efd, all you need to suggest is to search the forums or provide a link to one of the threads. Of course it would be better if you refer to the official tutorial and help pages.

To fix error codes like that never ever run stuff from the net. It rarely fixes anything and it never ever can do anything more than what is already described in official tutorials. In fact, it usually does far less and usually just tries to reregister some DLLs which is rarely the solution.

Furthermore, because of the nature of those tools you never ever know exactly _what_ they do.

If you want to suggest stuff when people have an error code, then refer people to http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/, http://support.live.com/ or even to the default help you'll find in Messener itself via the menu Help > Help Topics.






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quote:

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Originally posted by garymce
Any help that you could give would be greatly appreciated.

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First, do NOT run those tools listed by Lukychan (or any other tools you might find on the net)....

Here is the official fix tutorial instead, which clearly tells you what to do and what is being done:
Messenger Support Space - Error: 80072EFD or 80048820-8004840F

Also, if you search in the help database:
Help > Help Topics > Error 80072efd: You can't sign in

http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com is currently offline, and it has been all day, I've been trying to load up various Microsoft support sites ever since I started trying to fix the problem and I get the same "the server at [address] is taking too long to respond" message.

quote:

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Originally posted by garymce
http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com is currently offline, and it has been all day, I've been trying to load up various Microsoft support sites ever since I started trying to fix the problem and I get the same "the server at [address] is taking too long to respond" message.

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All microsoft sites are online and work perfectly. Your internet settings must be seriously screwed up or some stuff is blocking everything.

See here (and further posts) if you want to read what is listed on the support site and what you need to do.

Thanks for the link, however, it's started working again out of the blue. I'm guessing that whichever server my brother and I were trying to connect to was either offline or refusing us.

Thanks again for the advice
-Gary