MSN Messenger Service Experiencing Outages

For the second time in two weeks, the MSN Messenger Service is experiencing worldwide sporadic problems.

Some users are still connected but many have been forced off the Messenger Service. MSN's status page which provides updates to customers about any service problems is currently experiencing "Server is too busy" errors and ASP errors.

On the 23rd of January the MSN Messenger Service was down for around 5 hours before service was restored.

An MSN Spokesperson confirmed the following last time "The MSN Messenger service experienced a hardware issue that resulted in a disruption of service for some customers this weekend. We identified the issue and worked to resolve it as quickly as possible. We apologize to any customers who were inconvenienced."

It's possible that this could be the issue again and we are awaiting Microsoft's response to this. Meanwhile a Neowin member, Dom, believes he knows the true reason as to why MSN Messenger is down..."I have official word of why MSN is down, one of the cleaners unplugged the plug to the 4 way which has the 2 MSN Messenger servers and the 2 routers on it so she could hoover the server room". You never know huh ;)

Update: MSN Messenger seems to be stable for now. An MSN Spokesperson said that "MSN has identified an isolated issue within our datacenter and are taking the appropriate steps to restore full operation to all of our customers".

Update 2: It seems the MSN Messenger service is experiencing outages on the 8th Feb too. We're again awaiting a response from MSN regarding these further issues.

View: MSN Messenger Service Status