How to use any email address with MSN Messenger

by on January 6, 2009

If you’re like me, being able to have everything connected to a single email address makes life easier. Unfortunately, most Instant Messengers require you to set up email addresses with their service to use with their Instant Messenger program. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about this with MSN Messenger. You can go to passport.net to use any email address (for example, a gmail one) to sign into MSN Messenger with! This will also let you use your email address for all things live. Like Mail, Calendar, Skydrive, etc.

msn messenger sign in window using a non-msn email address

The process is dead simple. Go to passport.net, scroll down to Use an e-mail address you already have and click Get started now under it. After that it’s just a matter of filling in the necessary information. When you sign in to MSN Messenger, use your ‘regular’ email address and the password you created to associate with it. It’s really simple and something I wish I could do with other instant messengers.

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  • ash

    Hi, does this only work with free email addresses? I tried to sign up with my ISP email but I got an error message saying:

    ‘The portion of your e-mail address that follows the @ symbol is part of a “reserved domain” such as live.com, hotmail.com, msn.com or passport.com. Please type a different e-mail address.’

    Any way to get around this?

  • candy

    thanks

  • Sophie

    This e-mail address is part of a reserved domain such as live.com, hotmail.com, or msn.com. Please enter a different e-mail address. << what does this mean ??

  • Ash

    I got the same thing Sophie. What kind of address were you trying to register? I have a suspicion that the only non-Microsoft emails it allows are free domain emails i.e. gmail, yahoo, etc. I tried entering the email address I got from my provider and I got that same error message.

  • sa:)

  • pam

    The portion of your e-mail address that follows the @ symbol is part of a “reserved domain” such as live.com, hotmail.com, msn.com or passport.com. Please type a different e-mail address.

    I thought it would be easy to retrieve an old email address.

  • Chris

    I followed your advice re PASSPORT.NET and I get THE SAME error from PASSPORT site as well:

    <>

    So is it DEAD END ? What do I do now ? Why do they (Microsoft) do such a thing in the first place ?

  • I have seen a lot of comments on this error without much real explanation of what is really happening.

    I too had the error but I have determined the source and reason. The problem is in the error message and the Help information. The answer is that the domain name has been setup by the domain owner in the Live Services system as a Live Custom , OfficeLive, or Windows Azure domain. This then reserves that domain in Live Services. Once reserved only the domain owner (administrator) can delegate Live IDs in that domain. So no matter what name you put in it will be rejected for that domain with one exception explained below.
    This gives control to the domain owner as it should be. I grant you that many domain administrators are unaware of this behavior but it is by design.
    Consider companyXYZ.com hires Bill. Bill is assigned by the administrator an email account in the corporate domain. Bill then uses his companyXYZ.com email account to identify himself for personal interest at FaceBook.com and creates a personal account on FaceBook.com. Later Bill is fired because of some improper conduct. Is it unreasonable that the company should be able to delete Bill’s email address? No. Further the company doesn’t want Bill representing the company in any way including using the email on FaceBook. At present there is no feedback to a FaceBook type company. So Bill will eventually have to change his email address on FaceBook if he wants to continue using that service.
    The exception I mentioned above. If your administrator created an account in a reserved Live domain it “IS” a Live ID. It doesn’t then need be created because it will already exist from the moment the administrator created it.

    I hope this helps clear up this issue for you. If you get that message then it is really by design. I hope the documentation gets fixed which is the real problem.

    BizBanc.net

  • Ben

    Windows Live ID is experiencing some technical difficulties while creating your account. To start using Windows Live today, get support now, click here ,choose Windows Live ID and copy paste the code below into the form.
    LEFKPK~OIUOMQZ[QU\TXZ

  • Kimtai

    I got this message;You’ve reached the daily limit for creating Windows Live IDs. Please wait a day and try to sign up again or contact support for assistance.

    Error code: 450 : 0x800482d4 : 2009-10-23T05:22:28 GMT.Need your assistance please.

  • @Larry
    That is a great explanation but I have a question since you seem to be the only one on the planet that knows what happened. If I have a Live ID @mycompanydomain.com and I am the administrator, where do I go to add additional @mycompanydomain.com live IDs?

  • Michael,
    To have reserved your domain In Live ID you may have used Windows Live Custom Domain (now called: Admin Center http://domains.live.com/manage) or at OfficeLive.com.
    Depending on where the domain is reserved you need to go there to create your email accounts for that domain.
    If on the other hand you “once upon a time” used Microsoft’s Custom Domains or even if you created the custom domain entry but never actually used it (you didn’t make any suggested DNS changes) the domain is still in their system (reserved).
    You MUST have the orginal Windows Live ID that created the account to make the changes. Microsoft support can send a password reset to the account that created the account which in my case was what I needed to know which old email address I had used.
    Here is how it works in OfficeLive. Login to your OfficeLive account and administer the email accounts adding any that you want to be new Live IDs. These will automatically be Live ID’s.
    In Admin Center (Custom Live Domains) login then click your domain name. Add email accounts as noted above in OfficeLive.
    NOTE!!! Even if you don’t point your DNS email MX records to Microsoft to actually handle the email you must add the email accounts to the Live services for reserved domain.
    If you are NOT using their email servers then I suggest that you cancel your accounts in Live to release the reservations. There really is no reason other than controlling the who can use your domain in Live to have your domain reserved. I personally have all my domains reserved because I do want control. I don’t want people I don’t authorize using my domains as their Live ID. Unless the domain is reserved you can use any domain name for your Live ID (you won’t get notices but you can create the account.)
    Larry

  • Thanks Larry, I managed to log in with 2 other @mydomain.com Live Ids but neither was authorative for the domain so I am stuck. I filled out the support form but I know that wont get me anywhere.

  • Bethanie

    I got the same thing !!!!! So annoyin x what do i do ?

  • I am still going through the process. Many escalations and then a dead end. Now a restart. By the time my request got to the last person he thought I wanted to use my domain in Windows Live Domains. I’ll post back if/when I get a resolution.

  • beena

    Great work ;) thanks

  • Mini

    Could some one just make this simple please, insted of all this giberish. All we want to know it how to fix: “This e-mail address is part of a reserved domain such as live.com, hotmail.com, or msn.com. Please enter a different e-mail address”

    Could some one just explane this in simple terms.

  • The latest response to this post reminded me that I still did not have a resolution to my issue so here I go again… This time with success and no help from support.

    I went back to Live Domains admin center and used the get started link to add a Live Domain. This time I was prompted with a “suspended” message telling me to prove ownership of the domain by adding a cname record to my DNS entries. I complied and was granted access to the domain administration. I removed all the members that I had set up and then cancelled the account.

    I then tried to convert the email address I originally wanted to use as a Live acocunt. BINGO! All is well with the world, well not really the world but at least I recovered my self hi-jacked domain.

    Hope this helps someone.

  • Bonjour,

    Voici la marche à suivre pour utiliser msn messenger avec gmail par exemple.
    http://ida-pc.fr/?q=content/utiliser-windows-live-mesenger-msn-messenger-avec-un-adresse-gmail-yahoo-ect

  • I gave the long version above. Here is the short version…
    If you get the message cited above AND you are not the owner and administrator of the domain name that is “reserved” then you must do one of the following:
    1 Get the owner of the domain to create your email account for you in the reserved domain.
    2 Create an NEW email account at live.com or hotmail.com (even if you never intend to use it) then use the new account for your messenger.
    If the domain is RESERVED and it is NOT yours then you don’t have any right to use it. It is that simple.

  • Tom

    Thanks! hate having loads and loads and loads of different email addresses for different things. This info really is invaluable :)

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  • Guest

    this is weird givuing ur wemail u we3rdo

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  • serene lim
  • juciene monteiro
  • arizona

    yeah, cute.
    “This webpage is not available”

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