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MSN Messenger 4.7, "On-line" users appear "Off-line"

This problem has been occurring with all users intermittently during the last few weeks. Occasionally, the display will state "Away" when the user actually is currently available (or
"on-line") and presently using the CPU. These users are not intentionally setting the away or off-line status to appear after a short period of time, which is an option in IM. The MSN IM application itself seems to be having an out of synch problem.


Although you can refresh the other person's display (that is have your user name appear with the correct status) via
signing off/signing on, we really need to know what causes this problem to occur and how can it be permanently fixed. What could we check (settings and/or processes) on our server?

If you know some possible causes and any other fixes it would be greatly appreciated.:rolleyes:

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As described, the symptom — users shown as Away/Offline even while active and fixed temporarily by signing out/signing back in — points to presence updates being lost between the client and the messenger service rather than users deliberately changing status. Typical causes are local network/NAT or firewall timeouts that drop the client's long‑lived connection, a client-side “invisible/auto-away” behavior or add-in, concurrent sign-ins from another device, or buggy client builds. ’s suggestion to update the client and ’s note about an “appear offline” trick are useful leads to follow rather than final answers.

Practical checks to run on the client: reproduce the problem on one machine and then (a) verify Messenger idle/visibility settings and any IM plug-ins are disabled, (b) temporarily disable personal firewall/AV for a quick test, (c) ensure the account isn’t signed in elsewhere, and (d) review Windows Event Viewer for network or application errors at the time status changes.

Network/server-side checks: inspect edge firewall and NAT tables for dropped or reset sessions and for any application inspection that might break the IM protocol. If possible, test the same client on a different network (home tether or guest Wi‑Fi) to rule out corporate NAT/proxy behavior. Capture traffic while reproducing the problem to see whether presence packets stop or connections are torn down. A quick Windows check to see active connections is:

netstat -b -n

If netstat shows frequent disconnect/reconnect cycles, that confirms a network/session problem.

Common fixes that tend to resolve intermittent presence issues: standardize or update client builds, tune NAT/connection-tracking timeouts so long-lived sessions aren’t prematurely dropped, whitelist the IM application on firewalls/gateways, and remove any invisible-mode plug-ins. Avoid registry tweaks without a rollback plan. If issues persist after these steps, collect packet captures and firewall logs and escalate to the service/vendor support with that evidence.

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Member Avatar for TallCool1

MSN Messenger 4.7, "On-line" users appear "Off-line"

MSN Messenger 4.7 is hideously out-of-date and 100% deprecated--I'm surprised that it even worked for you as late as it did. The current version is 6.1. Get it.

Member Avatar for Vinoth

Trick, there is one such trick where u can make u r self offline even if u are in messenger, but this features is in 6.0 only,

how come yours????

Member Avatar for azhen

online user appearoffline

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