A big thank you to Rolando and the guys behind Mess Patch – TabServe is now compatible with Windows Live Messenger!
Mess Patch Generation 5 has just been released and now integrates patching capabilities for TabServe. The official patch for TabServe only works with MSN Messenger and I have never got around to updating it, so I was very pleased when Rolando proposed the integration. I hope to make a few final adjustments to the TabServe service for further Windows Live Messenger support before the end of the year.
Mess Patch is from now on the official patch for TabServe on Windows Live Messenger, the MSN Messenger patch will remain for legacy purposes.
Head over to Mess with Messenger and download Mess Patch Generation 5 for your version. The TabServe part is the fourth section in the patch, so if you are not interested in the other patch options you can simply just skip past them.
Due to the nature of phpListGrab, some users may have trouble getting it to work. There are two main reasons that may be causing problems.
The first common one is the script displaying Failed to connect to server. after a delay (ie. the script will stall for a while then load the page with the message). This is usually due to a firewall blocking the connection. The Web server the script is running on must be able to create outgoing connections to port 1863. Most shared Web hosts will have this blocked for security reasons and you probably will not be able to get it unblocked. How you get around this is really up to you, my only recommendation is try another server.
The other issue is authentication failing. phpListGrab uses MSNPAuth to authenticate with Passport. The version which uses cURL is known to not work on certain configurations, if this sounds like the case, try using version 1.2.1 which simply uses fsockopen. This release of phpListGrab uses this, so there shouldn’t be many people running into this one.
Just noticed there could be a potential nuisance worm going around MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger. Just like previous ones, once you have opened the URL, you become infected and it spreads the same message to your whole contact list. Avoid messages like this:
check out these pics of us! http://p1392.pics-myspace.info
Do not click those links. There maybe be different variants of the message but they will all contain the same link. Once you click it, you will be prompted to download an exe (at least when I did via Firefox). When run, it will infect your system and spread the message. So be careful, never click anything you don’t know about. More news about this and possible solutions to follow.
Update: The domain name has been removed so the threat has been removed. Quick thinking has prevented a major annoyance Or not! It’s now on a slightly different domain, see comment by Ian below.
If you are getting Failed to connect to server. when trying to use phpListGrab, it may be because I had it set to connect to a specific server IP instead of messenger.hotmail.com. You can fix it simply by opening phpListGrab.class.php and on line 35, replace 207.46.24.67 with messenger.hotmail.com. It should look like this:
function grab($server = 'messenger.hotmail.com')
Both copies in downloads and sandbox have been updated.
phpListGrab was created as an example on how to interact with the .NET Messenger Service in PHP, you simply pass it a Passport and password and it populates an array of the contacts in all lists.
Continue reading ‘phpListGrab updated’
Mess Patch Generation 5 has just been released and now integrates patching capabilities for TabServe. The official patch for TabServe only works with MSN Messenger and I have never got around to updating it, so I was very pleased when Rolando proposed the integration. I hope to make a few final adjustments to the TabServe service for further Windows Live Messenger support before the end of the year.