Main/News >> News Archives > The week of August 10 (2003) (you are here)

 Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger still not separated.

timothy says ( 16 Aug 2003 ):

With the release of MSN Messenger 6 and Windows Messenger 5 Microsoft decided to completely separate the two messenger versions. One aimed at company use, and one for public use. But it looks like laziness is the word in this case. When I extracted MSN Messenger 5.0.575 Windows 95 edition I found a file that checks if you are allowed to install MSN Messenger on your system. When I opened up the file it prompted me with the following message: Windows Messenger 5 Setup - Windows Messenger Setup Failed. Please contact your system administrator. So I decompiled the file checker, and found figured out that microsoft uses its installers on a very sloppy way: "just recycle the Windows Messenger Installer and change Windows into MSN if necessary"

 Officially Released Part Two: MSN Messenger 5.0 for Windows 95

dwergs says ( 16 Aug 2003 ):

Just when you thought the whole world eventually upgraded to MSN Messenger 6.0, Microsoft releases another two different versions of its instant messaging software. You can read about Windows Messenger 5.0 in Johnny_Mac's post below. Another -rather unexpected- release is that of MSN Messenger for Windows 95, obviously intended for users of somewhat older system configurations. Unlike resource-hungry MSN6, this client is satisfied with a 486DX/66 and 8 megabytes of RAM. Messers still operating such an antique piece of machinery can get the Windows 95 version from our MSN Messenger clients (update: fixed). [Reported by: msnerd]

 Officially Released: Windows Messenger 5.0 RTM

Johnny_Mac says ( 16 Aug 2003 ):

Windows Messenger v5.0 has been officially released (Aug 15th) and is available for XP users to download here. Quote about the updated Messenger client: "Windows Messenger is the instant messaging client of choice for businesses in managed environments with connectivity to Exchange IM servers and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) based IM servers, along with connectivity to the MSN Messenger service." People have been reporting back that this release still includes bugs, (graphical and application running). Compatibility issues with Messenger Plus! have also been raised, you can find them listed here. Note: This version is only available in English, German & Japanese. Other languages will be released in "late September 2003". [Source: BetaPlace]

 Forget about Bejeweled, get more MSN6 games!

dwergs says ( 15 Aug 2003 ):

A new custom game is available for MSN Messenger 6. It's called Nine Men's Morris, some sort of 9 pieces Tic-Tac-Toe spin-off, and was written by doron. The already well-known custom game Reversi has been blessed with a whole new look & feel (thanks to Neil). And help has been added to Sea Battle, thanks to bno. Last but not least, Chess is going to hit your MSN 6 soon! More about this soon, but meanwhile, enjoy the screenshot. All of these custom MSN 6 games as well as installation instructions can be found here. Comes with the "Mess.be recommended" label :)

 Get your Plus! plugin officially approved and included on MsgPlus.net

dwergs says ( 15 Aug 2003 ):

Patchou, mastermind behind Messenger Plus!, is planning an official Plus! plugins package to be featured on Msgplus.net. Developers out there, if you think your plugin is excellent enough to be part of the official package, you have a week to post a reply to this thread and attach your creation. More instructions in Patchou's post. [Documentation: Messenger Plus! API]

 More Messers exposed!

dwergs says ( 14 Aug 2003 ):

BeAut, Ben's girl (both eligible for Miss Mess if you ask me), stickitincider, sk3tch, Ricki, monkeyboy and Jake have all sent me wonderful Mess.be fanpics. Many thanks for showing your Mess appreciation! :)

 New poll: Are you a Lovsan/Blaster victim?

dwergs says ( 13 Aug 2003 ):

Not that we're into malicious delight or anything, but we're curious how many Messers were actually hit by the W32/Blaster (as named by Symantec, Sophos & Panda) AKA W32/Lovsan worm (McAfee's). Let us know in our poll! [Read more: our Blaster worm post]

 Archiving and collecting past MSN Messenger articles

dwergs says ( 13 Aug 2003 ):

A bit of restructuring has never hurt a fly, that's why I removed the seriously outdated MSN Messenger security issues from our Information & Knowledge department and replaced it with a new section collecting articles related mainly to current generation MSN6. I moved the security page over there for archiving reasons. Talented writers are always invited to contribute long but timeless articles describing the good, the bad & the ugly of MSN Messenger 6.0. An e-mail to submit * mess.be (* = @) with "ARTICLE" somewhere in the subject would do just fine.

 Added: Two Emoticon Fonts for MSN 6

dwergs says ( 12 Aug 2003 ):

Today we're proud to present you two debuting emoticon font creators: - CM_MC made us an MSN6 font called Transparent Pack. Download it here. - Mafia$tylez puts graffiti inside MSN Messenger 6 with his Ghetto Font. Download here. Keep up the good work guys!

 Updated Security threat: beware MsBlast.exe

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Updated: D'z warned me about this earlier on and now Symantec released a security report regarding the W32.Blaster.Worm. This worm will exploit the DCOM RPC vulnerability (described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026) using TCP port 135. It will attempt to download and run the file Msblast.exe. You should block access to TCP port 4444 at the firewall level, and block the following ports, if they do not use the applicaitons listed: TCP Port 135, "DCOM RPC" UDP Port 69, "TFTP" The worm also attempts to perform a Denial of Service on windowsupdate.com. This is an attempt to disable your ability to patch you computer against the DCOM RPC vulnerability. To find out whether you're infected, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and verify if the process 'MsBlast.exe' is running. If it is, kill the process MsBlast.exe from the task manager. Next, execute regedit.exe and search for the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Delete "windows auto update"="msblast.exe" from the right pane. Final step: delete msblast.exe from either the Windows System and/or System32 folders. Update #2: Do these instructions stupefy you? D'z was one of the very first to create an auto-cleaner for this worm, and now Symantec released a removal tool. [Detailed removal instructions: Symantec.com]

 Old MSN and Windows Messenger versions

timothy says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

We still do get a lot of requests about old MSN and Windows messenger versions. Lots of people don't know you can still download them from the official Microsoft site. But for your convenience I have posted the links to the old versions down here: - MSN Messenger 4.6 - MSN Messenger 5.0 for Windows NT 4.0 & 2000 - MSN Messenger 5.0 for Win95 & ME - MSN Messenger 5.0 for Windows XP - Windows Messenger 4.7 More version & different languages can be found here.

 Zone Labs protecting your IM experience

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Zone Labs, makers of the popular ZoneAlarm firewall, is extending its security expertise to instant messaging with the release this week of IMsecure Pro, software designed to block invaders (malicious code & spam) and protect & encrypt data from the most widely-used messaging programs: AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Trillian and MSN Messenger. Available as a $19.95 download from Zone Labs, the program includes one year of security updates. After that, the fee is $10 yearly. Zone Labs is also introducing a 15-day trial version of the Pro version and a bare-bones IMsecure 1.0 as a free download for personal and nonprofit use. The free version only blocks incoming buffer overflow attacks and provides encryption for one user ID on one of the three services. [Homepage: Zonelabs.com]

 Microsoft puts a price on enterprise Instant Messaging

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Microsoft will be announcing pricing and licensing details for the Office Live Communications Server 2003 on its website on Monday, entering the final stretch for delivery of the enterprise instant messaging (IM) product by the end of the year. The estimated retail price for Office Live Communications Server 2003, previously known as Office Real Time Communications Server 2003 and by its "Greenwich" code name, will be US$929 for the server software and $34.95 per client access license, said Ed Simnett, lead product manager at Microsoft in an interview. Office Live Communications Server 2003 allows companies to run their own enterprise IM network, addressing security concerns related to public IM networks and allowing companies to log and manage IM usage by employees. The Windows Messenger 5.0 client software used with the new enterprise IM server supports MSN Messenger, Exchange 2000 IM Service and Office Live Communications Server 2003. It can be installed on systems running Windows XP, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2003. Administrators can choose to switch off MSN Messenger, locking out the public IM service. Also available is MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises, enforcing enterprise IM policies such as naming of users and IM logging when using the public IM network, Microsoft said. [Source: IDG.com]

 Ehm, dwergs... What happened to the Exit Blog?

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Yes, the Exit Blog -a Messer's favorite way out of Mess.be- has been on Summer holiday for two months. No, it's not back yet because I'm re-thinking the whole concept (and it's hot, therefor my brain works slower). But the Internet isn't on-hold and I come across 'checkoutable' sites every day, so here's a semi-temporary-pseudo-exit-blog, based on our well-known credo: "Don't mess with... Mess with...!"

 Corrected: Harry Potter MSN Name Spell

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Oops. I corrected the spell for Harry Potter Names, because it blessed some unlucky male Messers with a rather girly sounding nickname :$

 Added: Three emoticon fonts and a little face set

dwergs says ( 11 Aug 2003 ):

Time for more emoticon fonts, don't you think? I've added three new MSN 6 alphabets: - Silver Gold, third emofont by Weirdal27; - Ecomotion by promising newcomer AmieX; - Spider Man, fourth MSN font by aRGH. And Wormking shared a new interesting and explorable concept with us: emoticon face sets. The idea is to create multi-line faces expressing emotions using elements like eyes, a nose and a mouth. A basic example is provided in Face Set #1, but feel free to experiment and send us the results.

 Updated: MSN Messenger 6 Logviewer 1.3.4

dwergs says ( 10 Aug 2003 ):

A couple of days after the previous one, here's another update to MouseMan's MSN Messenger 6.0 Logviewer. Version 1.3.4 comes with some bugfixes and now perfectly detects your accounts. The updated logviewer also allows custom account names and has extended tooltips, indentation, etc. Download it from our MSN 6.0 downloads or get it from the official homepage.

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