[darkpuppet]

next thing to try... do you have a proxy server configured to reach the internet at work? Sometimes MSN doesn't always pick up the IE settings (as it normally should) and manually configuring it can help.

go into IE, Internet Options, Tools, Connections

then click on the Advanced button.

if there's a proxy setting for HTTP, grab it, we're going to use this...

Then go into MSN, goto Tools, Options, then select Connections.

then go Advanced Settings. Make sure TCP is deselected at the top, and that they're all deselected, except for HTTP at the bottom.. Select that one enter in the hostname and port you found in IE, and test it.

(which gets me thinking) ...now, considering that MSN can proxy through HTTP (port 80), I don't think it would be too hard to find (or write for that matter) a simple proxy application to run on your local machine to funnel MSN traffic via HTTP.