Chat & MSN

[henry crun]

1.6 Athlon, 512 mbs ram, XP home.

Yesterday I clicked on chat, the usual message "Please wait.... it may take several minutes to load the chat applet" and Done appeared at the bottom, but it would go no further.
Also MSN Messenger refused to accept my login name and password.

Spybot and Ad-Aware showed nothing unusual, neither did a full scan with Norton.

Everything had been normal the day before and I have not altered any settings.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this has happened and how to fix the problem ?

[HelenD]

Could it be a firewall issue? I have noticed my firewall now blocks chat untill I ammend a rule with the correct ip address, I have not had any trouble with msn though.

[BRL]

Hi there. What happens after a re-boot...........?

[henry crun]

I'm not running a separate firewall program, just the XP one, so it is unlikely to be that.

I have also rebooted a number of times with no change in the situation.

Looking back on the previous 24 hours to the time when everything worked ok I can think of nothing that would have caused the change. I visited Pprune a couple of times, read a couple of online newspapers, and read the BB online news.

It baffles me as to why changes like this suddenly take place without any imput from the operator.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

henry crun,

Try turning off the WinXP Firewall. See if you can access then. If that does not work, try lowering your security settings in IE one notch for testing purposes.

Take Care,

Richard

[henry crun]

Did as you suggested Richard, even lowered the security setting to its lowest point without any change.

I also did a sytem restore back a couple of days to when I could get into chat, but that didn't make any difference either.

[swh]

clean your cookies out, see if that helps

[henry crun]

swh, That was one of the first actions along with the temp internet files.

[deltafoxtrot]

I cant get in to chat either. Worked fine one day, the next, it wont . I have done all the things suggested above and downloaded a new java, but still no luck. I am getting the message that the applet cant be found.

There a several others who also who cannot get in, so it would seem to be a problem with the system not just with our individual computers.

Any suggestions?

DF

[redsnail]

Likewise here, new lil iBook and could log onto Chat no worries. Now I can't.
I'll try another computer but *shrugs* dunno what's going on. Msn was unstable yesterday but today has been fine.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

henry crun,

Next step is downloading a different browser once again for testing purposes.

Take Care,

Richard

[Hawk]

Similar thread here http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120417

[PilotsPal]

I had something similar a little while ago. No idea what it was/what caused it but downloading Sun java seemed to fix it in the end.

[henry crun]

Richard, I have Opera 6.05 on a cd, if I install that would it sit alongside IE without conflict ?

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

henry crun,

Opera and IE will work side by side without conflicts.

Take Care,

Richard

[henry crun]

Richard, I installed the Java version Opera 6.05 and while the chat applet appeared to be loading, after about a minute it told me "Applet Not Found".

Any other suggestions ?

[LMM]

Add my name to the list! And I've sent my £££:=

[swh]

To see if your Java is working properly have a look at http://java.com/en/download/help/testvm.jsp

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

henry crun,

I have seen problems with computers not loading websites that they used to be able to view with IE. But in all those cases, loading another browser would all viewing.

If we could load another browser and view the site, I would recommend doing a fresh install of WinXP, but this is not the case.

Lets see what results the test that swh recommended reports before trying anything else.

Take Care,

Richard

[henry crun]

swh. Thank you for that link, it would not display the test applet indicating there is something wrong with the Java I had I downloaded the latest version.
The installation failed, so I tried it again and this time I was rewarded, it had installed correctly, oh joy.

Try to log into chat but with the same negative result as before.

It appears that I am not the only one having problems so it might well be a problem with the digichat server, not my PC.

I will wait until the others report it is ok and see how I get on then.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

henry crun,

I hope they fix it soon for you.

Take Care,

Richard

[swh]

HC,

Been able to narrow it down to some ISP being allowing in and some not.

Could be an address class problem, class c vs b vs a networks, or as I suspect more to do with the tracking server they use redsherrif.

Try and find out which ISPs work in you area.

S

[redsnail]

Couldn't get in using my Mum's Australian ISP (TPG). I can get in no probs using my UK ISP. I haven't tried to get in with the new lil iBook in the UK. I'll do that later after I've seen the big fella. :E

[deltafoxtrot]

Henry, I still cant get in either. I have done everything I can think of, and still the applet cant be found. I am having no java problems anywhere else.

Perhaps as suggested it is an isp issue, but i have tried 2 and neither work and i dont know how to find out if the problem is from here

I have no idea what to do but wait. Any suggestions anyone?

There seem to be more people having problems all the time.

DF

[swh]

Sent this PM to deltafoxtrot, LMM, tinpis, Jerricho, ZK-NSJ, criticalmass, Techchick, Chaffers as they indicated they cannot get into chat.

This is been sent to you as you have indicated you are having trouble logging into chat.

I have put together a FAQ for chat, http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1204954#post1204954

For others that I have actually talked to with MSN, their ISP cannot get into the chat server.

To see if this is the case for you, run the tracert host6.digichat.com from a msdos prompt or command prompt under windows. I suspect you will find it will time out trying to reach digichat, you will see * * * or host timeout along those lines if that happens contact you ISP, tell them you cannot connect to host6.digichat.com, and other mates you know can, let them know that your mates with different ISPs can connect, and if they can investigate for you.

Let them know that chat uses port 8396 to make sure that is not being blocked by a firewall.

If this does not make sense, copy and past it into an email to your ISP.

Let us know how you get on.

PS : The Chat server is not in the same physical location as the Pprune server so if you can get to Pprune does not necessarily mean you can connect to chat.

[Saab Dastard]

I'm OK with Blueyonder in UK

[OzPax1]

I'm ok too. I use Pipex ADSL in the UK.

[5milesbaby]

BT Yahoo! Broadband works fine in the UK, been in and out several times in the last 48 hours :} :mad: :}

[henry crun]

Not working with Infogen in New Zealand.

[tinpis]

ok with dodo broadband

but.....me :mad: broadband pootie is on the blink now :*