Escargot - Private MSN/WL Messenger server

[cantasan99]

Hi all,
As read on the MessengerGeek, Microsoft lastly shut down all MSN servers on May 18, 2017. Since the full switch on 2014 to Skype, MSN was usable with Messenger Reviver for 3 years. (Not anymore)

Then came the scene, valtron. He started Escargot, a private MSN server. REVIVED IT. He and contributors are working to understand MSN protocols. For now, all MSN versions and Windows Live 8.1/8.5 are supported, with plans to support all versions.

Currently, MSN is highly usable (except some minor features) and all major features are working. I was able to chat, send and receive file, send nudge/emoticon/wink. People also report that sound clips and video calls are working. Patchou, the author of Messenger Plus! is also here and brought Plus!. It also works.

All you need to do is sign up on the site, download a patched copy (or patch yourself), and adding people (no connection to MS, no previous contact!). I'm also here. Add me and let's start chatting! Or tell your friends!

WARNING: Windows Live can't login on XP because of lack of SNI in IE8. (Even MS made special servers for XP) Vista or higher required. Making special server for XP is way too expensive. You must stick with MSN 7.5 or lower with XP.

IMPORTANT: Newer Flash versions break some functionality (backgrounds, winks...). Download Flash 10 for IE: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flas ... rchive.zip

https://escargot.log1p.xyz

[oscareczek]

Any Linux client?

[cantasan99]

Any Linux client?

WLM 8.1 is usable with Wine (a member says), many versions should be usable then.
A changed version of Mercury Messenger for Android also available.

[oscareczek]

Wine is not a solution, it's a workaround.

[Darkstar]

Any Linux client?

Ever heard of google? Anyway... I did the detective work for you and here are three promising results:
aMSN, GTMess, KMess

They might be hardcoded to the original MSN servers so you might need to patch them.

[oscareczek]

Of course I know a lot of clients for original MSN existed… But none was patched, I tried one of them without any results.

[Darkstar]

Of course I know a lot of clients for original MSN existed… But none was patched, I tried one of them without any results.

They are open source, you can patch them yourself. A simple search and replace should do the trick. Most of them probably have the server to connect to in a config file or in the preferences window somewhere. If all else fails, a static entry in your hosts file will do the trick.

[oscareczek]

They are open source, you can patch them yourself.

none was patched, I tried one of them without any results.

If all else fails, a static entry in your hosts file will do the trick.

Not quite. There are about 10 URLs during logging in and some of them have different addresses than MSN ones (I mean after the top-level domain.)

[Darkstar]

Not quite. There are about 10 URLs during logging in and some of them have different addresses than MSN ones (I mean after the top-level domain.)

True, but those point to services that escargot should provide, all-in-one, so you should be fine just putting the escargot server in there everywhere.
At least that's what I found while googling this, personally I don't have that much interest in ancient messenger apps and I never had any contacts on MSN either (we were all ICQ and some AIM back then ... )

If there were an open-source ICQ server, now that would be interesting

[AlphaBeta]

If there were an open-source ICQ server, now that would be interesting

Hell yeah, ICQ has been very popular in my country in early years of the new millenium... Then everybody switched to Facebook. I still remember my UIN

[user99672]

You could also change your hosts file.

[viktormadarasz]

Any Linux client?

Ever heard of google? Anyway... I did the detective work for you and here are three promising results:
aMSN, GTMess, KMess

They might be hardcoded to the original MSN servers so you might need to patch them.

Personally since Discord has a client for Linux and You can create a chatroom and also do voice i see no much need for anything else like Skype IMHO

Actually why not Betaarchive have a Discord channel invite only?

[oscareczek]

For the same reason we shouldn't use anything but Mozilla Thunderbird – available on every modern desktop OS and supporting everything you need. People use Outlook or any other clients though, because that's their choice. Same with every IM.

[viktormadarasz]

For the same reason we shouldn't use anything but Mozilla Thunderbird – available on every modern desktop OS and supporting everything you need. People use Outlook or any other clients though, because that's their choice. Same with every IM.

You refer FOS SW and that companies like Chrome god knows what does with our data?

I agree and true the one thing scares me that You can not run your own Discord server on your VPS or own computer Only on Discords ( so they censorship , shutdown or do whatever they want , etc etc)

I wish the server part was Opensourced out to the masses

[oscareczek]

No, you didn't get it - a lot of people say Thunderbird is the best and there's no point in developing all other email clients. However, some people just like the other apps, my dad, for instance, used Outlook Express until he had to change OS XP→7 and now he's using Outlook.
Same with IMs - I use Discord, sure (it's ugly as hell, but a lot of people uses it), or Facebook Messenger, but I also use as exotic IMs as GG that nobody except a few (maybe less than 100) thousand people use, because I like the emotes, just that.

[Darkstar]

Personally since Discord has a client for Linux and You can create a chatroom and also do voice i see no much need for anything else like Skype IMHO

Yes, and there are newer operating systems than Windows 98 or Windows 2000 that can do everything those versions could and more. Yet still people here are interested in those. I start to wonder what you are doing here...

[viktormadarasz]

Personally since Discord has a client for Linux and You can create a chatroom and also do voice i see no much need for anything else like Skype IMHO

Yes, and there are newer operating systems than Windows 98 or Windows 2000 that can do everything those versions could and more. Yet still people here are interested in those. I start to wonder what you are doing here...

I never said i dont like or appreciate older OS-es at all , guess You just took one statement out of context and generalized based on the
// also that statement meant on a modern setting meaning that amongst the ,,modern available options" since Discord I see no use for me anymore to Skype for example and not that since Discord old apps many loves have no use or place anymore//

[WATERMELONS10]

Microsoft did release a messaging server you can install that works with Windows Messenger. It is called "Live Communications Server 2003", if it is not available on the FTP already, I can dump it.

[AeroFusion]

Microsoft did release a messaging server you can install that works with Windows Messenger. It is called "Live Communications Server 2003", if it is not available on the FTP already, I can dump it.

This would be nice if you could dump it. I've never heard of it before, actually. Seems pretty cool. There isn't actually too much info about it online, besides some old news articles and a tiny Wikipedia page, so we might as well find it for ourselves.

Side-note, MS has the download links for the documents and resource kits. Interesting.

[WATERMELONS10]

Hey, AeroFusion, I know this is a late response, but do you still want me to dump Live Communications Server 2003? I have it from one of my Microsoft Action Packs.

[Ghast]

Not quite. There are about 10 URLs during logging in and some of them have different addresses than MSN ones (I mean after the top-level domain.)

True, but those point to services that escargot should provide, all-in-one, so you should be fine just putting the escargot server in there everywhere.
At least that's what I found while googling this, personally I don't have that much interest in ancient messenger apps and I never had any contacts on MSN either (we were all ICQ and some AIM back then ... )

If there were an open-source ICQ server, now that would be interesting

Actually, there's several, but the one with most working features would be IServerd.
Have a look at http://iserverd.khstu.ru

[TechGamer17]

Escargot is also Open Source and you can even self-host your own Escargot server!
And I will for sure check out the ICQ server too!