Windows Messenger keeps logging me out

[Matt]

I've been through the newsgroups and can see lots of people with this
problem. I'd really appreciate it if someone can lend me a hand.

I've just purchased a brand new Dell laptop with Win XP SP2 (with Messenger
5.1) and McAfee firewall/av/anti-spam. After I told the firewall to 'allow
all' for the Messenger program, I was able to log into the Messenger service
with no problems.

However, I've noticed that if I leave Messenger running in the background
for about 5 minutes and then try to send an IM to one of my contacts, I'll
get the IM window open only to see that in the main Messenger Window I've
been logged out of the system! I've tested this many times and its always
the same; leave it for 5 mins, then try to send a message and wham, logged
out.

To compound the issue, if I don't try to send a message to anyone, even
though the main Messenger window says that I'm logged in, in reality I'm not
and no one can send me messages. Its not until I try to IM someone in the
online list that it bumps me out and gets me to log in again.

I've not got any bandwidth issues (Cable 1500/256) and I've tried it
with/without firewall being active. I can replicate this problem every time
so it's not a sporadic issue. I've uninstalled/reinstalled but no good.
I've even tried earlier versions of Messenger.

Help sincerely appreciated.

Matt

 

[Matt]

I should have mentioned that I'm behind a Netgear WGR614 v4 Cable router
with their latest firmware. I've enabled UPnP just in case it helps, but it
didnt'! I've also got another PC on the lan with the laptop attached to it
and I've tried running Messenger on that machine as well with the same
passport (not at the same time though). Guess what, I get the same problem
! Does this point to a problem with the Router, cable provider or
Microsoft? How do I find out ?

 

[Matt]

I've just found something interesting. i removed the Netgear router and
connected my PC directly to the cable modem. Guess what, no Messenger drop
out !! Its been working fine now for over an hour. I'm remaining logged in
and other people can see me. When I plugged the router back in, it started
to go wrong again.

So it would seem that some routers have problems with Messenger. Why or
how, I don't know. I'm running a main-stream router from a reputable
manufacturer and on the latest firmware revision. And it doesn't work.

If anyone's got any ideas, please drop me a line (before anyone mentions it,
I have already dropped my MTU to 1400)

Matt.

 

[Stijn Arnauts]

I'm one of the other people with the problem, and I too am connected
through a router. So that could indeed have something to do with it.
Stijn Arnauts

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Hi,

Actually this is usually related to firmware in the router (I realize you've already upgraded
yours Matt) but if you haven't upgraded yours Stijn, I'd suggest you do so (you can find such
updates at your router manufacturer's website).
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.

 

[Matt]

Having spent about an hour on the phone to Netgear, I've now concluded that
the Netgear WGR614 Cable Ethernet Router is not Windows Messenger friendly.
If anyone else can contradict me, I'd welcome them to show me how you got
yours working. In the meantime, if anyone out there is looking for a
Mesenger friendly router, I'd steer well clear of Netgear.

Some of the 'resolutions' I was asked to try by Netgear technical support
included :-

1. Change my MTU size to 1400
2. Switch off the SPI firewall (whats the point of buying a router with it
in the first place then!)
3. Switch on UPnP and set the broadcast interval to 1min

And the biggest joke of them all :-

4. Configure a port forwarding rule to allow 1863 to point to one PC (so why
have I got a router, if not to share a single connection between multiple
computers!)

Seriously, I'd love it if someone could get this to work or if Netgear would
fix their firmware to allow Messenger to work properly. I know other
routers work 100% of the time with Messenger with no configuration
what-so-ever (Draytek Vigor for example)

I'll post back if I ever get this to work.

Signing out.
Matt.

PS has anyone got a list of routers that do work with Messenger ?

 

[Matt]

Even port forwarding didn't work!

The only way I have got Messenger to work reliably with the Netgear WGR614
v4 is to configure the router so my PC is in the DMZ. Two problems exist
with this :-

1) my PC is now wide open for attack
2) only one PC can be in the DMZ so my other 2 PC's can't use messenger

Back to you Netgear.