messenger problem at university

Hello,

I am writing this on behalf of a friends daughter who has just started at
uni. She has just bought a lapton with XP on it and although she has
internet connection in her room at uni her messenger program wont work,
there is an error mesage saying something like, "messenger needs a http
server to work".

Sorry I cant give you any more info but I'm not that clever with computer
nor is she, I was just hoping someone here might know what the problem is.

Thanks.