Blood Diseases Support

If you are having problems connecting to the Chat Rooms, here are a few tips and things to try and help you connect.It is VERY important that you read and follow these instructions FULLY and carefully or it will not work.

You may want to print these instructions out, so you can follow them as you go along, because you should not connect to the Internet or any other Program/Software while you are performing any of the tasks described below.

* Unfortunately those who have Apple Macintosh Computers (iMac, PowerMac, iBook, PowerBook, eMac, etc) will not be able to access any MSN Chats, this is because Macs are not compatible with the Chat Rooms.

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Basic Tips and things for newbies to check:

Firstly, check the day and time the Chat is Scheduled to start. For the protection of our Members we only open the Rooms at the scheduled times stated in our Chat Schedule, unless we state otherwise on our message board. At all other times, the room will not be open and if you try to get in it then it may produce errors.

If you click on the link to the Chat Room when it is open and get a message which says that you need to be a member in order to gain access, this is because we are now holding all of our nightly Group Chats in our Main CDnD Group (which is our 'Mother' Group), rather than in each individual Group, to make it easier for everyone to find us.

We realize some of you may not be aware of the recent changes to MSN Chats, so if you need more information about this, please feel free to ask us and we'll explain things further. But I would just like to point out to you all that our chats are still FREE, you do not have to pay for anything here! MSN have made their 'Public' Chats a paid Service, but our Chats are not held on the Public Server and that's why you have to be a Member in order to gain access.. Membership is also FREE.

If you are not already a Member of our Main CDnD Group, then you will be prompted to apply to join the Group. This is a quick process and should only take a couple of minutes. Once you have applied to join the Group, one of the Managers will approve your application, we will be watching out for applications coming in, so you shouldn't have to wait too long. Once your application has been approved you should receive an email telling you that you've been accepted. You will then be able to access our Main CDnD Group & Chat Room as and when you want.

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Possible causes of connection problems:

If you are sure you have the right day and time for the Chat, but are still unable to connect to our Room, then there is are a number of reason why this could be happening to you as MSN are having a few problems with the Chat Servers right now and quite a number of people are experiencing problems connecting. Some of the problems include..

Quite a few people have encountered is when connecting to the room a message comes up saying something like "your nickname is not allowed, please choose another one", this happens if you have any special characters or spaces in your nickname.. for some reason it doesn't like anything out of the ordinary. Your nickname must only contain the letters a-z and the numbers 0-9.
Another problem that is common right now has to do with people who use the French XP, there seems to be a conflict in the script language and MSN are working on trying to fix the problem. Many people have found that that this solution works: After opening the chat, just change the language (top of the page) and chose UK or US or Spanish but NOT French. You'll be able to enter the chat room.
Many people using MSN Explorer have been getting errors, but when they switched over to Internet Explorer and tried to connect again they then could access the rooms without any problems.
Sometimes, when MSN update the Chat Controllers and sometimes for other unknown reasons, the files associated with the Chats, that are stored on our Computers, sometimes start to conflict with each other. These files then need to be completely removed from our Computers in order for the new Software to download and install correctly. This has to be done a certain way or it causes all kinds of problems and you won't be able to connect to the chats.

We have the instructions here on how to fix this problem and it is very important to do things in the order we have suggested here. If you do it in any other order then the files will not delete or may leave certain files on your machine, which then conflict when you try to access newer files on the Server.

***It is very important that you follow the instructions below exactly, or it will not work.***

Usually when these problems occur you have to delete the old chat control, then without rebooting, clear out your computers cache (temporary internet files & cookies), then reboot your machine and try again. Instructions on how to do this are given below.

It is important that you are NOT online or have ANY programs open while you are deleting the old chat controller and clearing out your computers cache, as while you are online you are still using files that are in your cache so it will not delete them.

So start up your computer from scratch and don't open ANYTHING.. yes that means no internet, no email, no Instant Messenger, nothing, lol.

I would suggest you either write the instructions down or print them out, so you can refer to them.

Once you have cleared everything out and deleted the chat controller, completely shut down your computer and restart it, then try going into a chat room before you open and Messengers or anything else.

How to Uninstall the Chat Control and clear my computer cache -

To uninstall the MSN Chat control, follow the instructions for your browser below.

For Internet Explorer 5 and later -

In Internet Explorer, click on 'Tools' in the menu that goes across the top of your browser window. Once you click this a drop-down menu will appear and from there select 'Internet Options'.
A box will appear and you should be on the 'General' Page, which will have the address of your current Home Page on it, below that it will say 'Temporary Internet Files', click the button just below that, which says 'Delete Files'. When a box appears asking you if you are sure you want to delete the files, click 'ok' and the temporary Internet files will then be deleted off your machine. This may take several minutes.
Next you need to click the button that says 'Settings', another box will appear and on there you need to click 'View Objects, which is down at the bottom-right.
This will open your Downloaded Program Files Folder, which is stored on your Computers Hard Drive. There will be a list of files in the Window, from here you need to right-click your mouse on any files namedMSN Chat Control and select 'Remove' from the menu that appears. If it asks you if you are sure you want to remove it, click 'Yes'. This should now completely remove the Chat Control from you Computer.
Close this Window now and it should take you back to the gray settings box you were in before. Click 'Ok' and then 'Ok' again on the next box, to save your settings.
Completely close down your Computer and re-boot it as usual.
Using Internet Explorer, try to connect to the Chat Room again. The software should automatically start to download onto your machine. When asked to accept the security warning, click 'yes'.
Now wait for the Red Smiley with a Party Hat on to appear on you page, then click the link to enter the room.

For Windows XP - To get into your Internet Options, you may need to click on your Start button, then select 'Control Panel'. A Window will appear and from there you need to click on 'Network and Internet Connections' and then 'Internet Options'. Then you can follow the Instructions above, starting from #2.

For Netscape -

On your Windows taskbar, click Start, click Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.
On the left side of Windows Explorer, click Program Files, and then double-click Netscape on the right side of Windows Explorer.
Double-click Program (you may need to click either Navigator or Communicator), and then double-click Plugins.
Right-click msnchat4.0.ocx, and then click Delete.

Double click on MY COMPUTER (this will have removed the Chat Files off your Computer).

Next you will need to clear out your computers Cache, by following these instructions:

Double click on the C drive.
Double click on PROGRAM FILES.
Double click on Netscape.
Double click on USERS.
Double click on the file in the window that opens, it may be called USER or YOUR NAME.
Double click on CACHE.
Click on EDIT in the window that opened.
Scroll down to and click on SELECT ALL.
Click on FILE.
Scroll down and click on DELETE.
Answer YES or OK to any questions you may be asked.
This will clear out any old files that may be present and the next time you view the website you should see the latest version of the site.

By following these instructions has proved to help most people connect to the chats once again.