Hi, Sorry if this is being posted in the wrong section, I've searched under the Windows Live Forums and it was specified that technical questions were not going to be answered. And under all the TechNet forums none were specific to Windows Live products. I've also posted here but it seems that thread has gone dead. Anyways, getting to the point. Recently a few of our users started having problems when signing into Windows Live Messenger. Once they provide their credentials and click on "Sign in", the client loads and loads and an error appears claiming that there is an internet connection problem with the Error Code: 81000306. This error occurs on any versions of Live Messenger for those specific users. The users can still access the web IM service of Live Messenger, but not sign into the client itself. These users are currently using docked Dell Latitude laptops, more specifically the E4310, E4300 and D830 all running Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise SP1. Their internet connection settings point to a .pac file for accessing the proxy cache. We have a Squid Proxy Server version 2.7 running with Access Controls allowing traffic on port 1863 and 443 amongst others as well as to the following domains: messenger.msn.com gateway.messenger.hotmail.com Those were only added recently in an attempt to solve the problem, but to no avail. The rest of the company can sign in fine, with various versions of Live Messenger and so could the group of users in question. This discards the possibility of a proxy issue as the majority of the company can still sign in with no problems. I've currently tried the following to resolve the issue: Checking and unchecking the "Automatically detect settings" option in the LAN Settings of the machine's local Internet Properties as suggested by some of the forums I've encountered. Leaving both the "Automatically detect settings" and "Use automatic configuration script" options checked again as suggested by certain forums. Uninstalling and re-installing Live Essentials. Flushing the local DNS cache. Clearing all internet caching and history. Resetting the network adapter: "netsh int ipv4 reset" After trying all of that, Windows Live Messenger refuses to sign in. This is a huge problem for us a we use Live Messenger to communicate with clients and colleagues and also to provide technical support for users who travel overseas on business. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know whether more information is needed. Thank you. Kind regards, Guilherme Rios

Windows Live Help Center: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-help-center Windows Live Messenger Help Center: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger-help-centerPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi Rick, Thank you for your post, but trust me I've tried all of those steps and nothing has come of it. I would have not posted here if it was literally a last resort and in the hopes of finding someone who has had the same issue and would be able to share how they've solved it. I've been struggling with this problem for about three weeks now and it's making me look like an idiot, :P. One other thing I forgot to mention is that when I try the HTTP and TCP tests, the services connect just fine.

Anybody have any ideas?

So, I managed to fix the problem temporarily for one of the users. Turns out the build version she was running was not running Build 15.4.3508.1109. So after updating her Live Messenger to the latest build, switching off her Wi-Fi, so as not to conflict with the Wired LAN connection which is used since the laptop is docked in, and performing a "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" Windows Live Messenger started working again. However the headache started all over again this morning. Live Messenger is again refusing to sign in, despite all services connecting fine. The Error code I'm getting now is: 80072745. Has anybody experienced this or can provide a solution to this problem? Regards Guilherme