Yahoo Mail, webcam issues

[bubbletrouble]

Issue 1: Over the past several weeks/months, Yahoo Messenger seems to have gone out of sync with Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Mail itself seems to be glitching.

It used to be that the moment I received a message, the notification would pop up in messenger. It still does, but only rarely. Now, one of three things happens.

1. it's gotten so that the notification only pops up an hour or more after the message was delivered.

2. it doesn't show up at all until I log off and log in to messenger again, then I find the message has been sitting in my inbox for a while.

3. yahoo messenger doesn't report that I have new messages at all, but when I go into my inbox I have messages waiting. This only happened once that I'm aware of and it was just this past Saturday. I had a message from the previous evening waiting, and one that had been delivered Thursday, but never showed up in Yahoo Messenger or my inbox until that moment, the Thursday message even showed up on the list in the proper order, between other messages I had previously read.

Is there anything I can do on my end to get things back in sync?

Webcam:

When I go to view my friends webcams, they start fine, but after a short while the image will either freeze or go black, though Yahoo will still say "receiving images". I see that the freezing is a known issue, but if anyone has a workaround other than using a different service, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Thanks for any insights you folks can provide.

[Ven0m]

1. I've noticed this for a long time now.

2. That'd be on Yahoo's side.

3. Again, this is on Yahoo's side.

Nope, no workaround. Yahoo's webcam service is heavily unreliable and the servers are stressed so in my opinion it's best to use different (and better) services like Windows Live Messenger.

[bubbletrouble]

Thank you very much for your reply, I'm glad to know that at least I'm not the only one experiencing these problems.

As far as switching to WLM, I'd do that, except that the WLM installer package always hangs and never finishes installing. In my opinion these downloaded installs are one of the greatest banes of modern computing. (Also a "known issue" for WLM that has never been fixed to my knowledge.)

If I were to switch to WLM, I can still chat with my Yahoo contacts correct, or is it only a one way deal? I know Yahoo users can chat with/add WLM, but what about the other way? (stupid question I realize, but I like to know as much as I can about something before I make a change, since my friends aren't going to all move to WLM just for me, I'd like to know if I'd still be able to chat with them if they stick with Yahoo) and if I DO move to WLM, would I still be able to view the webcams of my yahoo friends?

Thanks agan for any answers you can provide.

[patndoris]

Yahoo and WLM are interoperable in text only - not in video or voice. You can add YH contacts to WLM or WLM contacts to YH it goes both ways. However, you can only chat with them in text either direction.

If you want to do voice and video - you would need to have your YH contacts register for WLM (which is simple enough to do) and many people already have a login for both.

As for the download package hanging....That should not be an issue for WLM. I've never had that happen. What was the last version you tried to install and are you on Vista or XP?

[Ven0m]

Well, if WLM doesn't work try AIM. Or you can try downloading the web installer of WLM from Essentials - Windows Live and only installing Messenger.

... that is, if you're on XP or Vista or even Windows 7.

[bubbletrouble]

Originally Posted by Ven0m

Well, if WLM doesn't work try AIM. Or you can try downloading the web installer of WLM and only installing Messenger.

... that is, if you're on XP or Vista or even Windows 7.

It worked this time, of course the last time I tried it was six months ago so maybe in that time some bug fix helped it. It used to be quite a widespread issue that the WLM installer would hang at 99%.

I'm bummed that video isn't compatible, but at least I have another option, thanks everyone.

[Ven0m]

It's an issue too where the Yahoo! Messenger web-based installer would hang at 99% too. I always use the offline (full) installers for both WLM and Y!M.

[Dermot]

You can use messenger plus live with windows live messenger to collect your other mail for you i believe. Messenger plus live here

Not sure if it would require pop access for your yahoo mail or not.

[Ven0m]

Well, as far as I know you can't with Messenger Plus! Live. There's programs and an extension to Mozilla Thunderbird that allows POP3 access for your Yahoo accounts.

That, and I think Yahoo!POPs is still out there.