How to Tell If an MSN Contact Is Online

Instant-messaging programs such as MSN Messenger are convenient tools that can make it very easy to communicate with many different people across long distances. Sometimes, a user may not want to be bombarded with quick messages from friends every time he signs on, so he may change his status to make it appear as if he is offline even when he is logged in. There are several quick steps you can take to determine if the person is actually online or not.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Navigate to the MSN Messenger website (see Resources). Type in your email address and password to log in to your account.

2. Click on the image of the plus sign next to the "Online" category to see which of your contacts are currently logged in and available to receive messages.

3. Open a second tab in your web browser (or a separate instance of the web-browser program if it doesn't support tabbed web browsing) and navigate to a site like BlockStatus or Status Detector that checks MSN contact statuses. (See Resources.)

4. Type in the email address of the contact and hit "Submit" to see if she is online but has manually changed her status to "offline" so people cannot see her.

5. Switch back to the MSN Messenger program and send a message to the user. It will still go through if he is actually online but has manually changed his status to show as offline.

Tips & Warnings

• Status-detecting websites can also be used to determine if one of your MSN contacts has blocked your email address so she will not receive messages you send her.

• MSN Messenger users can change their privacy settings so a program like BlockStatus will not detect them if they have set their status to "offline."

Resources

• Official MSN Messenger Website
• MSN Block Status Checker
• Status Detector