People using Microsoft's instant-messaging software, MSN Messenger, may have been a mite lonely this weekend, with only a virus to keep them company.
The software giant acknowledged on Monday that it continued to battle a technical glitch that prevented MSN users from logging on to the service's instant-messaging system for the past three days. The problems, which several users complained about on discussion forums frequented by network administrators, caused several hours of outages on Monday morning.
The problems also coincided with the emergence of a new computer virus, known as Funner, that spreads using the MSN instant-messaging service and tries to direct people to a Web site, www.78p.com. However, security software firm Symantec found no evidence that the virus, which had only spread to a small number of PCs, had caused any disruptions.
"From what we have been able to see, it tries to send itself out to all of your MSN Messenger contacts," said Oliver Friedrichs, senior director of Symantec's security response team. "But we have only seen about 34 submissions in the last 24 hours -- really not that significant."
The virus changes the configuration of an infected computer so that users who try to browse to one of more than 900 Web sites will be redirected to www.78p.com, according to information on Symantec's Web site. The virus may also attempt to download additional functionality from the site. The site, however, appears to be down.
By early afternoon on Monday, a representative of Microsoft said, the company had fixed the issues that had prevented its users from logging on to Messenger.
"The system is now back up and running," the spokesperson said at 1 p.m. PDT. "We believe that the problem is now fixed." The spokesperson did not comment on whether there was a connection between the new virus and the outage.
The spokesperson would not give further details about the problem, except to say that the Monday morning outage was due to "administrative maintenance".
The latest outage for the Microsoft Network was the focus of a discussion among network administrators on the mailing list for the North American Network Operators Group.
"Problems were going on all day [Sunday]," said one member, who did not know until he saw the discussion that the problem was more widespread. "Good to know that I am not alone."
Talkback
I was just hit by this today. Does microsoft really have a handle on it? 10/20/04
I don't know if this is related but I have not been able to log onto messenger for three days. I have checked any news coverage online that I can think of and there doesn't seem to be any information. None of my contacts that I have talked to (by phone) can go online either. Can you help???? mbest@nexicom.net
emmm well i have just been sent this virus and everytime one of my contacts sign in it sends it to them then for some reason when i try to send them a message it didnt work so i have to sign out and sign back in again everytime one of my contacts comes on and now some of them accepted it and its spreading please sort this
well my virus must be completely diff cos my messages get through to friends ok but i send them a link to a web site not sure what it is cant get rid of it either and my virus scanner cant pic anything up
Obviously you do NOT have a handle on the problem because just today i received a virus that i am not even sure what it does yet, but it sends itself to all my contacts, with the saem messege, "i look cool in this pic" witha s ite beside it. i was suspicious at first n did not click on it, but as it persisted, i finally did n now i cant stop it. every time i sign on it sends itself to everybody. it makes using msn impossible. uninstalling it does NOT help. i know a lot of people affected by msn - related virusus and jsut because some have not posted comments does not mean that only a few people have been affected. YOU CLEARLY DO NOT HAVE A HANDLE ON THE PROBLEM AND YOU WILL B LOSING A LOT OF CUSTOMERS IF YOU DO NOT FIX IT. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.
still cant get on my msn and it really cleared me out files.pics and now its even took my password and secert qustion answer with it cant get on at all
I cant sign into msn because it says sorry msn messanger is unable to sing you into msn at this time, please try again later
Please help me.
I cant sign into msn because it says sorry msn messanger is unable to sing you into msn at this time, please try again later
Please help me.
i got the same
Raaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh (dont you just hate this waiting game?! Does anyone have any answers to this problem? Like another comment says "you need to fix this problem as soon as possible" otherise you will be losing A hell of a LOT of customers. Get it sorted!!!!!!!!!!!
YEEEAAAAHHH. Waiting game over!!
THANKS :o)
YEEEAAAAHHH. Waiting game over!!
THANKS :o)
This virus auto installs loads of junk on my comp. It even installs this freephone software which reconnects my phone line onto some premium charge connection!!! It was showing a charge rate in a small window, it got up to like a £1 in 3 seconds, so i pulled the phone line straight away!! Sort out ur msn man, it said on the news not alot of people are affected and virus is not serious, well lots people have this problem and I might have to reformat my drive because of your fault.
I cannot Log in to msn. Once i uninstalled Norton Anti virus it was Fine.
Now when I'v insalled the anti virus, MSN has stopped working again.
i dont know what is wrong with it.
This problem is obviously not fixed. My computer has been struck with a virus that is extremely unwelcomed and I want it removed now. It is quite annoying to sign in and be bombarded with messeges from a virus, and unlike stated- this virus does cause disruption. Fix the problem as quickly as possible. And make sure it stays fixed!
-Kumiko
i really cant get on my msn is this a virus doing this some help me please thanks
I am fed up of this now, This needs sorting out!!
how can i get rid of this stupid virus that sends a link to every one of my online contacts? its really irritating me.
how can i get rid of this stupid virus that sends a link to every one of my online contacts? its really irritating me.
OMG I have the same flipin problem... I had this one link... http://vbulettin.com/msn.php?email= and so i clicked it and well i got the stinkin virus so then i deleted msn plus and kept msn 7.0, well 4 i while everythin was fine and i new not to click any of those links and i had a friend over who was on my com and they clcik another link...hey, is this your profile? http://www.chatprofiles.net/msn.php?email= and noe im stuck with it!!! It keeps askin all my contacts that like every 5 mins!!!
HELP SOMEONE!
Damn this thing... Been trying to connect to msn, but it keeps saying cannot connect to server, please try again later??? later has been going on for 2 days... over it! what do I do? Is this a virus???
Does anyone actually have a solution for this???
hmm , i just got a block checker virus and ive tried everything to get rid of it. my computer is already pretty slow so now it just sucks . any body have any thing that could work?
-bamboo xDD
i installed norton anti virus now i cant get my msgs or msn today it is just coming up blank i have uninstalled norton but problem still exists can any one help please its driving me crazy
my msn has not been working for days can any one help me? wat do i do iv tried everything.im lost without it i dont know wat to do please can some one help me? i cant check me mail either.
i cant get onto msn now either!!! wot a load of crap sumet shud be done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My MSN was working well. But it was little bit slow. I unstalled it and now trying to get it from the web since morning. I can not get. My computer is fully scanned. And fully secured by the anivirus and adwares agent.
Hotmail is also not working. I can not even watch my email.
When It will be okay?
BLOCK-CHECKER SOLUTION: click on start->Run, then type-in 'regedit' then click on ok. When this opens the registry editor, select Edit->Find and search for 'block'. For each result found(that relates to block-checker, which is more than 1 result), delete that key from the registry (just select it and press 'delete' on keyboard), and once all the relevant keys have been deleted, then close Registry Editor. Then restart your computer, and when this is done, go to the Block-checker folder (C:\ProgramFiles\BlockChecker) and delete the entire BlockChecker folder.Then restart your computer for good measure. This should now get rid of the horrible virus.
Hey guys, I had problems signin into hotmail but messenger was working. However after trying out out lots of ways of solving the problem in the end I jus upgraded ny MSN messenger to 7.5 (the new version) since then its all been good. Hotmail and messenger is perfectly fine. Its free to download. You should have had an email from hotmail about the upgrade too.
Good Luck
hey,whats going on cant log in to msn shut me down within 1 hour that i was on get it straight
Yes,
I had it too!
You will need to do a System Restore
:D
Why don't you just use Linux instead? Aren't you sick of having to deal with all this crap?
If i ever meet you i will beat the shit out of you linux is a big pile of wank and your blatent lack of common sense shows me that you are a fuckstick linux is crap and has one use and that is as a very last resort or breaking into networks using knoppix. However linux as an OS is shit and so you should be banned and as linux is only a backup teh block checker virus aint extreme enough to use it
if u have the block checker virus windows messenger still works and u can stil talk to all the same msn contacts, but its not as gd as msn, but still it works
Yeah but so does msn... its a lot better and it only has that f**king message coming up every two mins. And was resolved above a couple of posts ago.
i loged onto msn but all my contacts and everything is gone!!!!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrr! CAN SOME1 PLZ HELP ME????????!
help why cant i sign in to msn it says: sorry we are unabile to sign you into msn messenger at this time please try again later? whats happening
everytime i sign into msn it keeps on sending this link to everyone of my online contacts constantly so i can no longer use MSN, how can this problem be resolved?
i cant get on msn iv tried n tried but it says trs l8r i did but it dint work.
I can't log onto MSN messenger and when I click sign in it doesn't load. Can you help me out please?
How To get Rid Of Block-checker.exe
1) go to search files and folders in ur start menue and search Block-checker.exe
2) Leave the search engine open and press ctrl alt and delete to open task manager
3) go into ur processes and end task on all the Block-checker.exe listed in there
4) Then go back to the search engine and delete all files belonging to Block-checker.exe
5) Restart You Computer
It got rid of mine
Downloaded 7.5 messenger trying to log in keeps coming up This service is temporaily out of service. Its now been a week! Can anyone help please.
I cant log on to msn messenger. Box keeps coming up not compatable with program. what do i do?
I got a virus through msn messenger just tonight (Oct 25, 2005). It was a message with a link sent to me through one of my contacts. The message said "Hey is this you? (then a link). I clicked on the link (wasn't really thinking) and then found out it was a virus but it was too late. Now I can't log onto msn messenger, can't go to the msn website, and can't access my hotmail accounts. Can anyone help me???
It came too me, and alot of other people I know, it wiped my norton right out..
ya i cant get on msn messenger either plus i cannot system restor it either. aslo it knocked out my norton Antivirus T__T
any one one help me with this problem to get rid of this virus
mi computer went weird, i was having a video convo then mi webcam stopped. i signed out then back in and was updated mi msn msgner, then mi net security blocked an intruder and mi webcam stil won't. is this also some sort of virus or just msn playin' up? thnx
Please help! I can only use Msn Messenger and 'regedit' in Safe Mode! Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus won't work at all! I can't find the BlockChecker folder or even Block-checker.exe! I can see the registery keys for Block-checker while using 'regedit' in Safe Mode but when I restart they come back! Please help! I don't know what else to do! :(
downloaded msn again but PC say ERROR missing UNICOWS.DLL module can`t be found.(help )
i went on msn this morning(30th october 05) and it was working fine when this popup came up and said is this you so i clicked on it not noing wot it was. now wenever i go on msn it says it is unable to connect its really annoying as web messenger wont let me on either. i ave tried downloading it again but even that dont work. i hope this gets sorted out because it is a big problem for everyone and i just really want to get back on my msn i have tried everything omg!!!!!!!!! I am really angry!!!!!!!!!!