MSN Fights Messenger Outages

For two days, MSN Messenger has been experiencing outages that are frustrating millions of users who are finding themselves repeatedly disconnected from Microsoft's instant messaging network. The company told BetaNews it has identified the issue and is in the process of remedying the situation.

Adding to user concerns, MSN's network status page has been frequently inaccessible, returning "Server too busy" errors. The problem started late Monday, and is a result of an "isolated issue" within Microsoft's datacenter.

"Since yesterday afternoon, some MSN customers may have been experiencing issues accessing MSN Messenger. We've identified the cause and are
working to take the appropriate steps to remedy the situation as rapidly
as possible," an MSN spokesperson told BetaNews.

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and disruption this may be causing our customers."

For the second time this year, Microsoft has found itself apologizing to its IM customers. Users of MSN Messenger were knocked offline for almost six hours in late January before the service was restored.