Use Windows Live Messenger to troubleshoot connectivity problems

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by Sarthak K in Internet

I have actually discovered that Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) is great for troubleshooting internet connectivity problems! Now you would be wondering how can WLM – an instant messenger used for chatting – solve internet problems? Well read on to know how.

Quite often while I am connected to the internet from my laptop at home, the net stops working. I’m not sure if Windows XP has such a recurring problem with wifi connectivity but I have Windows Vista on my laptop and it happens quite a bit.

Now usually to troubleshoot such problems in Vista you would normally right click on the connection in the tray and click on “Diagnose and Repair.”

This opens a a box which starts searching for the problem causing the connectivity issue. In most cases it is unable to identify the correct issue and gives you the option to “Reset Network Adapter” to get it resolved.

Resetting the adapter sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I can safely say that the diagnose and repair”" facility is Windows Vista is a failure as its on very few occasions that it really diagnoses and fixes a problem correctly.

So here’s the trick for Vista users (and probably for Windows 7 users as well) – Try and sign in to Windows Live Messenger while you’re having problems with the internet connection. Since the net isn’t working, WLM wont be able to sign you in but display this window instead:

Now click on the troubleshoot button and a new window comes up that checks your computer for internet connectivity issues. I got the following Window when my WLM finished checking for net connectivity issues last night:

As you can see it shows that DNS and Key ports are flagged. And that’s usually the case – most net connectivity problems, when not occurring from the ISP’s side happen due to DNS problems. Often the DNS is unable to resolve the IP address, and this thing recurs when there is more than one computer using the WiFi network.

Now coming back to the troubleshooting, click on the “Repair” button to help solve this issue. WLM will start troubleshooting the issues found, and once resolved all possible issues will be checked with the green tick and not flagged with the exclamation mark like was the case with DNS and key ports. ou will now be able to use your net and also successfully sign in to Windows Live Messenger. I have seen that in 75% of the cases I have been successful in solving my internet connectivity problems by using WLM.

Give it a try if the need arises!