Vista - My contacts appear offline cannot send emails. live messenger

I recently had the hard drive replaced. Loading wlm went fine and can sign in
with no problem. But my two contacts are offline and it is telling them I am
offline. I also cannot send email's but I can receive. Back in 2003 when I
first loaded wlm on this machine I had the same problem and Jonathan Kay
helped me out it was something simple like key ports???. There is an
exclamation mark on the wlm connection status under tools, options,
connections. Thank you