Friends wireless, msn...

[NeedMoarFarms]

My friend has been having alot of trouble with their wireless.

It all honesty, all I know is that it's some type of netgear router, situated about 5m away in the next room from the computer. Connected through the standard wifi dongle which is supplied with the router.

The internet works fine. All it's use for is e-mail, internet, IM and the occasional game of The Sims. Every single program can connect to the internet fine, except IM programs. I've tried every single one, I can think - windows live messenger, yahoo, pidgen, etc. None of them work. It will not sign in. The error code it gives (for windows live it is 80072745) is related to the wireless router I think.

So I've done everything I can think of to allow msn to connect, but nothing works. I spent 2 hours tonight trying to fix it, but no matter what settings I tried it wouldn't allow me to connect.

I'm maybe thinking the signal isn't strong enough (read that can be a problem for msn), so any of you guys know what could be up with it?

[jamin]

Port forwarding? Or Xp firewall?

Check which ports need forwarding then config the router mate.

[NeedMoarFarms]

Vista. Not using firewall, using norton or something and I allowed the program through.

Already tried port forwarding, absolutely nothing.

[Jay]

is this the same for all PCs connected? If so check the MTU

[NeedMoarFarms]

It's not actually. There's a mac upstairs (probably about double the distance away from the router than the computer) which works fine with msn, but it's got built in wifi.

Just realised that lol, pretty sure it's the wireless dongle which isn't picking up a big enough signal from the router then?

[alsenior]

have you checked the time on the computer? this can cause msn messenger logon to fail. it maybe the same for yahoo and pidgen

[Jay]

if its getting a conection to the net of any kind MSN should work.

What is the ISP and what is the MTU set to?

[aidanjt]

Netgear routers automatically set the MTU to the appropriate value for the connection type. It's likely to be some 'security' utility being stupid, Norton is the prime candidate for stupid utility awards.

[Jay]

I know for a fact that Netgear DG834 routers do not always set the correct MTU and an incorrect MTU will stop MSN from working.

I spent hours trying to work out why my friends PC couldn't connect to MSN but could use the net for everything else. I found that his AOL connection needed a different MTU than the Netgear had auto set. As soon as I set it to the correct number, bingo, MSN worked.

Just try 1472 and see if that fixes it, if not then set it back. No harm done.

[aidanjt]

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. Netgear routers automatically set the MTU to the correct standards defined value for the relevant connection types. They shouldn't have to work around broken networks.

It should be:
PPPoA - 1500
PPPoE - 1492

Anything below that is bad settings/infra. beyond the phone socket.

[Jay]

its still worth trying though.

[aidanjt]

its still worth trying though.

True, some ISPs are stupid like that.

[confusingcircle]

Where does msn's connection troubleshoot tell you it is failing. If you haven't tried this goto Tools -> Options -> Connection -> then either run the troubleshooter, or hit Advanced.. for specific tests. May help you pin down exactly what is stopping it. Also maybe worth disabling any firewall temporarily to isolate it down to the PC or the router.