I always thought that it would be really hard to create a MSN messenger clone or something. Probably, you'd need to do something with socket connections and protocols and whatever. Actually, it isn't that hard. I found out a lot of stuff on this site, and then got enthusiastic to try a bit myself.

As there's plenty MSN clones around already, I decided to create something else. A little tool to see who's watching your online status but is not on your list. Also, you can see who's on your list, but you're not on their list. It's a little sneaky MSN spy!

First, a mega-short description of the MSN protocol. There's two servers, a notification server and a switchboard server. The notification server handles your presence, your friends list, etc. The switchboard server is used for conversations.

This program only logs on to the notification server. It authenticates there with your user name and retrieves your full contacts list. This list contains the people on the list that you see in MSN messenger, but also the people that you have blocked and the people who have you on their list. The program 'decodes' this list and shows you who have you on their list, but you don't, and who you have on your list, but they don't have you (anymore). There's no way to find this stuff out in MSN messenger, and I guess it's pretty usefull.

By the way - this is a really simple program. It didn't require any hacking or something, it's basic stuff. It just reveals some features of the MSN protocol that the standard MSN messenger doesn't show.

Download the v0.001 version here. It works, but that's all. Itīs a JAR file, which means that you need JAVA installed. As this project is still work in progress, I don't provide any instructions or whatever, I just can't be bothered. If you don't know how it works, tough luck. I do intend to release a full user-friendly version later, so just check back in a little while.

I would really appreciate if you'd let me know if it works for you, etc. If you know what you're doing, but you can't get it to work, you can mail me too and I'll be happy to help out.

Did it work for you?

Yeah, works great!
Works, but useless for me
Doesn't work!
Total crap