Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Windows Live Messenger not conecting/hanging on Windows Vista

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I finally found a way to make Live Messenger work on Vista, it was hanging so badly even Vista wasn't able to kill the application, either from Task Manager or at logoff/shutdown. Interestingly enough if hibernated and then resumed the process disappears.

Basically you have to add the msnnsgr.exe program in the firewall exceptions - (classic view) Control Panel > Windows Firewall.

If it's still not connecting, try the following found on Microsoft newsgroups.

I found the procedure below in another group, and it solved my problem with Vista and Live Messenger. Apparently Vista's "auto-tuning" networking feature doesn't play nice with some routers. Not sure if it is a bug in Vista, a bug in Messenger or a bug in the router firmware but anyway this looks like a possible workaround that might help other people who have the same problem. BTW I have a NetGear DG834

Try this:
- Click start
- Type: cmd
- Right-click cmd.exe when it appears under Applications
- Click Run As Administrator
- Type the following:
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
- Press enter
- Restart your computer

To check autotuning is disabled repeat the above but type:
netsh int tcp show global

4 comments :

  1. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2007 at 10:28 PM

    router firmware 3.1.25 is a better solution

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dan DragutFebruary 16, 2007 at 1:50 AM

    That's good news for Netgear owners, thanks for sharing back.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ShawnFebruary 19, 2007 at 2:18 AM

    Just FYI, this is a recurring problem from XP. I spent forever trying to figure out why Live Messenger appeared in the task manager while the window itself wouldn't show up. The solution was to tweak with the firewall settings. You may have to delete previous version of messenger from your exceptions list.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dan DragutFebruary 20, 2007 at 12:57 PM

    Hi Shawn,

    I don't remember having this problem in XP, although I have installed a few beta versions and then release versions on top of those, but is something to keep an eye on.

    I usually go through Windows Firewall exceptions every now and then to check for new rules or the ones that don't apply anymore - thanks for the tip.

    ReplyDelete

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