April 23-27, 2002 - Version 1 - Draft 2
hypothetic.org

MSN Instant Messenger Protocol

Overview Basics Connecting Session Messaging File Transfer Other FAQ Research

Overview

* Important Note

This website has been replaced. This version only exists for nostalgic purposes and some content is outdated and inaccurate. Please refer the New Version.

About This Guide

This guide explains the MSN Messaging protocol (version MSNP7) from a third party developer's point of view. This is unofficial, and the information was found from reading other documents and reverse engineering. This is the second draft of this document.

About The Author

I am Mike Mintz, and I have written this because when I was trying to learn about the MSN protocol, I found very few useful resources. I write Python scripts which utilize the protocol, and you can find most of my works here (although, at the time of writing, there has been nothing uploaded). I strongly dislike the MSN protocol, and I only use this because my state, Alaska, is a strongly MSN-centric state, so all of my local friends use it. I personally advocate and develop for Jabber, which is a much better instant messaging solution.

For Help

If you need help or have any questions, suggestions, ideas, etc., you can use the Discussion Forum. You can also ask me personally (my contact information is on my website). If there are enough people interested, I could set up a permanent chat room for MSN Messenger protocol discussion and help.

Advantages

Listed below are some advantages over the official MSN Messenger client that a third party client could have.

Sources

TODO

Below is a list of things I would like to document or change in the site but haven't got around to. If you have any information on any of this, please contact me.

Copyright ©2002-2003 to Mike Mintz.