Hey Arun, Provider7, and Prisaz:
Below I have written a better explanation of my situation, which I posted on another thread. The problem isn't the software or the operating system. Everything worked just fine until I transferred service (moved) and upgraded. What I have been told is that Verizon no longer offers MSN Premium. When I open MSN Premium it works fine (for a few seconds) until a dialog box pops up that says: "Your MSN account is no longer valid. To reinstate your account, please contact Customer Support. When you click OK, MSN will close. If you do not click OK, MSN will automatically close in five minutes." Of course, within 2 minutes the program closes.
Here is my situation:
My use of MSN goes back about 10 years ago when Bill Gates tried to compete with AOL. Microsoft offered an instant rebate for anyone who signed a contract with the old MSN dial up service. In my case I signed up for 3 years and received an instant $400.00 rebate for stuff I purchased at Best Buy. After my contract expired (and having teenage kids and 1 phone line) I had Verizon with DSL installed in my house (it was cheaper than a second phone line not to mention a huge 768 KB/s connection speed). The Verizon with DSL came bundled with MSN Premium so I was able to keep my email address- which was important to me.
In July of 2007 FIOS was offered in my area so I jumped on the 5 MB/s Internet and television package. A couple of months after this I moved and when I tried to sign in on my MSN account it wouldn’t work. I contacted Verizon and they told me I needed to talk to MSN. I called MSN and they told me I needed to talk to Verizon. I re-called Verizon and a tech guy started looking into my account and realized that for some reason the account had reverted back to my original DSL account (including credit card and such). He made some changes and everything started working fine again. In April 2008 I moved again and had the same problem trying to login to my MSN account. I contacted Verizon and after bouncing around to various departments my MSN was once again fixed. On 2/5/2009 I had my service transferred to a new address (yes, I have moved quite a bit lately) and when I tried to sign on to MSN Premium I had a dialog box pop up that said my account was no longer valid and I needed to contact customer support. It went on to say that MSN would shut down in 5 minutes or when I clicked the okay button. So, I called Verizon thinking this would be just another quick (?) fix on their part. After bouncing around to various departments again I was told that they no longer offered MSN Premium as an option. I asked the tech guy when this started and was told it had been that way for over a year. Since I had gone through this ordeal only 9 months previous to this I was a little confused. Anyway, I accepted his explanation and resolved myself to using the new MSN Live. Well, after the first week I must say I am very disappointed. I liked the old MSN Explorer a heck of a lot more than using the new MSN Live. First of all, it’s just Internet Explorer. Nothing special. Not to mention, the default settings do not save any of the emails you send. You have to go in and set this up. Same as when you go through Verizon Central and check your Verizon email. Before I could open my MSN Explorer and I could read both my MSN email and Verizon email. Not anymore. I have to go through both websites to check my email. Also, the Verizon Central website “times out” and you have to sign back in every so often. My take on this is that MSN Premium was a cost factor where MSN Live is a free service. I could always check my MSN email by just signing into the Hotmail link on the msn.com website. Verizon Central doesn’t appear to have the ability to check other email addresses like MSN Explorer. It doesn’t have the cool extras like McAfee Anti Virus, Encarta, Parental Controls, Photo Sharing, and so much more. The funny thing is- when I sign on to MSN Live and go to my account it still shows my old billing info and address. Weird! There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to change this unless I want to pay for this “free” service. I sure wish I could go back to using the MSN Premium! I told a buddy of mine that he could save $10.00 a month and boost his connection speed to the new 20 MB/s plan, however he would lose his MSN Explorer (his is still working). I wish someone from Verizon would reply to these postings and explain to all of us why we still can’t use MSN Explorer!
