I do not know why Messenger is having difficulties. But if you are looking for status updates to feed your front desk folks, the MSN network status web page for Messenger is http://support.msn.com/networkstatusresults.aspx?ProductNum=100&ProductName=Messenger Messenger Feature: Sign In The .NET Messenger Service is temporarily experiencing difficulty. You may be unable to sign in. Please try again later. Location: N/A Last Update: Monday, 09 February 2004 21:15:00 GMT Next Update: Monday, 09 February 2004 23:15:00 GMT