Cannot connect to windows live services, WLM

Hi guys.

I have a bit of a problem.

One day i tried logging in using windows live messenger and got an error 81000306. I've tried disabling autotuning as prescribed by some websites but it has not worked.

Tried resetting winsock, forwarding ports for the .net messenger, repaired Windows live messenger, and still no go.

I ran the windows live messenger tests and they all passed, so it's weird that i cannot connect.

I've also noticed that when logging on to sites that use the windows Live ID, the pages will not load. Status indicated on the browser is that it says " Connected to logon.live.com " but dOes nothing else. no webpage is loaded and it does this until the connection times out.

This happens when signing in to bungie.net or xbox.com as well. I also have my xbox 360 connected to the same modem (without a router, i just take the ethernet cord and plug it to whichever i wanna use), and it can connec to Windows messenger on the dashboard ok.

Have restarted and restarted, have power cycled the modem, even reseated my D-Link ethernet pci card.

I have not made any large changes, other than i am using Open DNS, and it's updater since my ISP has dynamic IP, and i have turned off UAC.

I've done every troubleshooting step i can think of (I worked for tech support for a computer manufacturer, so i've pretty much used up everything that training has given me and my 2 years experience in that field).

All other messenger programs work. Tried using pidgin, with the same result, i can connect with all other IMs except windows live.

Any ideas?

Many thanks!!!

Check your hosts file....

Thanks for the reply john, appreciate it a lot.

Host file info:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

Anything i should be editing or adding here?

Nope, I was just making sure that those weren't marked as bad sites by some sort of protection software.

What sort of malware protection / firewall are you using?

Using nod32 as of the moment. never really gave me problems before and i have tried disabling it already.

firewall?

using the standard windows firewall. Im still troubleshooting this right as we speak. Seems that sometimes i can get through some sites like gallery.live.com, but the whole page does not seem to load correctly. The format of the webpage is off.

that is weird. I am logged into WLM right now, and have no trouble loading pages at all.

Check your network settings as well, and make sire that your DNS settings are correct - and call your ISP and ask them see if there is an issue that the can determine. They might have an issue with a DNS server and they'll tell you how to resolve it temporarily....

thanks i'll try that. later on ill try to turn off opendns and revert to my ISP's dns. Thanks!

Hi Moridin,

Yeah I believe the problem is with OpenDNS, Its also a good idea to update your routers firmware too

Steven