MSN Hell

[Jazzman]

Hello all! Right - just got this laptop and moved into university halls of residence where I access the net Via a LAN. A Cat 5 (RJ45) to the wall and I'm connected - no problems here at all.

The only problem is one that has only developed recently - for some reason most of the time I can't sign in to MSN messenger. The second I hit the 'Sign In' button I get an error message 'we were unable to sign you in to the MSN Messenger at this time'. Even MSN's helpful troubleshooter application that tries to fix the fault itself can't manage it, beyond letting me know it's something to do with connection. When this happens, I am unable to access MSN web pages and even hotmail, with a few exceptions (eg ironically the MSN service status page!) The wierdest thing is about 20% of the time it signs in no problem!

As far as I know the halls internet policy allows MSN messenger completely and no one else seems to be having this problem. Any ideas?

Thanks everyone!