Can't sign in to MSN Messenger

I haven't been able to sign into MSN Messenger for about
a week now and it's driving me nuts. I've read
Jonathan's replies to other users who are having problems
with signing in and everything looks ok on the surface:
-The date in my computer is correct.
-My password is saved, however I did try changing the
password too, with still no luck signing in.
-I don't use a firewall.
-IE security settings are ok...the 'check for server
certificate revocation' is unchecked and the 'use SSL
2.0' and 'use SSL 3.0' are checked.

Weird part is I can sign into my hotmail account just
fine, so I would think that I should be able to sign into
messenger too. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling
messenger per instructions from MSN Messenger support but
it still didn't work. Any other suggestions? Thanks
much!