Help with random problem please.

[Matix411]

Alright, I'm not sure if this post should go in this forum or not, if not, then someone please let me know.

I just got a laptop (Dell Inspiron 4000, yes, with Windows XP) from my Uncle a few days ago, reformatted and all, and I descovered that in order to get the internet to work (without a wireless card) I must plug in the cable cord from the base station on my PC at home into the laptop.

So...I get the internet working, and I can run IE, however, anything and everything having to do with my e-mail (my hotmail address) and password does not work.
For instance, and this is the main problem, MSN Messenger 6.2.
I updated Windows Messenger to MSN 6.2, and I still cannot access my account. It says that it cannot connect to the internet, or that there is no internet access, whatever. So I try the old Windows Messenger, and that fails too, and says the same thing. I then find out that maybe I have to register with .net passport, which confuses me because if I have a hotmail account already I shouldn't have to do that, so I try anyway, and again, no internet connection found. So I try and register with MSN Explorer, and it says "The service is very busy at the moment, would you like to try again" or something, and I click yes, and it repeats. So, there is an ongoing problem, and I cannot log onto MSN 6.2, nor Windows Messenger with my hotmail adress and password (which by the way, I am using right now, on my home PC). On top of that, I cannot even log onto the hotmail site, or to my myspace.com account in which I need my hotmail address and password to log into as well. The "This page cannot be displayed" error comes up.

If someone could kindly tell me what the hell is going on, that would be greatly appreciated. I don't know how to get this working, I've tried all day and all last night, and no success. I'm used to Windows 98, which worked...

The errors are as follows, in order of what I have tried to do as well:

1. When I tried to sign on to Windows Messenger I got the following error:
"Signing into .Net Messenger Service failed because the service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."
I find that funny because MSN works on my home PC.

2. When I updated to MSN 6.2 I got this:
"We could not sign you into MSN Messenger because your Internet Explorer broswer cannot connect to the internet. Please check your browser's ability to connect."
Also funny because I had just downloaded MSN 6.2 off IE.

3. When I tried to register my email with .Net Passport I got this:
"Please type your .Net Passport email address and password correctly." Typed it in letter by letter and it was right every time.

4. When I tried to update windows off IE I got this error:
"Windows update has encountered an error and cannot display the requested page."
That happened every time I tried to update.

5. And final, when I tried to install Kazaa, it would not connect to the P2P Network, thus I could not completely download the program, nor install it.

It seems the problems are frequent with updates, and things involving my email.

Any suggestions on how to fix this beast?
(Sorry for such long message)

[Miz]

When you say "base station," what exactly is that.? A router or hub or something else?

Do you have SP2 installed? If you don't know, right click on My Computer, go to Properties. On the General tab it will Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 under the System heading.

Do you have a software firewall installed?

That information will help troubleshoot the problem.

[Matix411]

By base station I mean the cable modem that's attached to my PC. I don't see Service Pack 1 OR 2 under the "system" heading actually, it says Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002 and that's it.
I do have a firewall, all I know is that I'm pretty sure it's run through Norton Antivirus, that's the virus program I have at least.

[Overclocked Doc]

If you actually have Norton firewall then you will have to configre it to allow MSN.
Open the Firewall control panel and look under personal firewall > programs > and scroll down the list to see if MSN is even on the list. If not you'll need to add it either by selecting "add" or "program scan".

[Matix411]

Alright, and apparently, I cannot download some programs because I cannot access their sites, much like hotmail.
I tried to download quicktime and when I went to the downloads page is said "This Page Cannot Be Displayed" which is the same thing Hotmail does when I try to sign in.
I can access my Yahoo account, but no others, not even my Myspace account.
Kazaa will not download, so I downloaded Imesh, and it works, but it doesn't connect, because it says I'm not connected to the internet, but I AM....ERRR


...where is the firewall control panel...I don't see one under the Norton thing.b

[Matix411]

and if it's not run through Norton then I don't know how to find out what it's run through, I just know I have a firewall because under network connections in the control pannel it says the broadband is enabled and firewall protected.