Live Messenger Login Problem

You cannot use Windows Live Messenger at this time because your contact list is not available. Please try again later.

Click help to learn about your contact list.

Error Code: 81000378


I searched the web looking for the answer and no one could tell me how to fix it. So I corrected it by doing the following steps.

a. Adjust your Microsoft Internet Explorer security settings:

• Start Internet Explorer.
• On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Advanced tab.
• In the Security section, make sure that the following check boxes are set correctly:
o Clear the Check for server certificate revocation check box.
o Select the Use SSL 2.0 check box.
o Select the Use SSL 3.0 check box
• Click OK to close the window.

b. If you are using Windows Live Messenger on Windows Vista, click on Start and type in each command one at a time in the Windows Vista search box located on the Start menu. For Windows XP click on START, select RUN and type in each command below one at a time and click the OK button. After each command is executed successfully, you will receive a "DllRegisterServer succeeded" message. Wait until you receive this message before you run the next command.
• REGSVR32 softpub.dll
• REGSVR32 wintrust.dll
• REGSVR32 initpki.dll
• REGSVR32 Rsaenh.dll
• REGSVR32 Mssip32.dll
• REGSVR32 Cryptdlg.dll
• REGSVR32 Dssenh.dll
• REGSVR32 Gpkcsp.dll
• REGSVR32 Slbcsp.dll
• REGSVR32 Sccbase.dll

c. If you are connecting from a corporate network and are experiencing this error, it is likely that your corporate proxy may be blocking access to the contacts domain Please request your network administrator to:
• Permit connections to https://*.contacts.msn.com through network proxy.
• If the proxy has rules based on user-agent string, please ensure that connections with the HTTP user-agent string “MSN Explorer/9.0 (MSN 8.0; TmstmpExt)” are allowed to connect through the proxy.
If it doesn't work at all try the following
Open windows host file with Notepad: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\ho­sts
Add these 2 lines to the bottom:
65.54.239.80 messenger.hotmail.com
65.54.239.80 dp.msnmessenger.akadns.net
Save it and restart msn
Please do remember to remove these lines when the msn service gets back to normal.