Vista - Help us solve the case of the disappearing windows live messenger contacts!

Hello all.

Through the help of several users we've tracked down the source of the
disappearing contacts (a system call) but need your help in producing a
workaround!

For those that are running into this issue, please send mail to
(livebeta_nick@newsgroup) with the following information:
1. do you have modem setup or are your IE settings configured to use a
modem?
2. can you download the listdlls app from
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896656.aspx and while
messenger is running, run a command?
A. click "start", then choose "run", type in "cmd"
B. navigate to the directory where ListDlls.exe is located
C: type in "listdlls.exe wlcomm.exe > wlcomm_source.txt" and send me
(livebeta_nick@newsgroup) the txt file?
3. From that same directory run "ipconfig -all > ipconfig.txt" and send me
(livebeta_nick@newsgroup) that file as well.
4. Please let me know if you have one or more network cards on your machines
and if you have any modems (including the version numbers would be good)
5. Are you running virtual machine software?
We think the disappearing contacts are related to the fact that some users
have odd network cards installed and when we ask for the unique address it
tells us it's only locally unique which causes the problem.

Hope to hear from you all!

Nick H.
Windows Live Messenger Team.

Actually, this set of steps might be easier for everyone:

If you log in and you are missing contacts, please do the following:
1. Start -> Run -> type "msinfo32"
2. In the system information dialog that should show up, choose "components"
then "Network"
3. With "Network" selected go to the File menu and choose "Export" and save
the file as "Network.txt" to your desktop.

Please email me (livebeta_nick@newsgroup) that file as it shows which
networking components your machine uses to talk to the internet.

Thanks again for all of the help!
Nick H.
Windows Live Messenger Team.


"Beta Nick [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi All.

Here’s an update for those people running into this goofy problem. We’ve
found the source and are currently working on a fix to the problem.

If the high-order bit of the first byte of the MAC address is on (usually
indicating a multicast or broadcast address) or the Vendor ID is returned as
0xffffff (indicating a vendor without a IEEE-registered code) then a system
call gives us something we don’t expect which causes the missing contact.

In order to workaround this issue until we have a fix handy, users can
uninstall all Windows Live Essentials Apps (v14.0) off of their machines and
then install 2008 Messenger and ignore the Optional upgrade.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...5-0487bd5e84ef

Thanks.
Nick H.
windows Live Messenger Team.


"Beta Nick [MSFT]" <Beta Nick [MSFT]@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:ED3D3A5C-76A0-4BB9-87D7-41916F1B542B@newsgroup
Actually, this set of steps might be easier for everyone:
If you log in and you are missing contacts, please do the following:
1. Start -> Run -> type "msinfo32"
2. In the system information dialog that should show up, choose "components"
then "Network"
3. With "Network" selected go to the File menu and choose "Export" and save
the file as "Network.txt" to your desktop.

Please email me (livebeta_nick@newsgroup) that file as it shows which
networking components your machine uses to talk to the internet.

Thanks again for all of the help!
Nick H.
Windows Live Messenger Team.

"Beta Nick [MSFT]" wrote:

hi nick, I hope that you are talking about the contacts that are listed but
say they are offline, even when they are. My main contact person logs on
through yahoo, in the U.K. Until 10/1, everything was fine, I could call his
computer and we could talk. Then on 10/1, I signed in, and it said he was
offline,, when he attempted to "call" my computer, his conversation came up
saying that I could not call him, as he was not on my contact list. I
attempted to add, but nothing happeded. please help with situation

"Beta Nick [MSFT]" wrote: