HELP Can't get Messenger 6.1 to work, just hangs

I appear to be on but
can not click on any contacts or email link, when I put
my cursor over anything in messenger it just show the
hour glass.

Other could see me but I could not get their IM's.

I have tried rebooting several times. It has worked OK
intermitanly. If I turn it off with Task manager it says
program not responding.

I got Windows Messenger 4.7 to work for a while today,
but that will not work now either.

I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling 6.1

I am running XP Pro and have messenger come up when I boot

this has been going on the last two days ever since the
server was down Monday night

Any ideas?

..