Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is there a way to get MSN messenger to not log out during sleep?

A

amberashby

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
254
0
If I have MSN messenger running and I put my computer to sleep when it wakes back up I always get an error message from MSN and then I have to re-connect.

I would be nice if it could just log back in automatically.


Is this possible?

Thanks.
 
-amberashby

Not really at sleep. Sleep shuts down your drives, Mobo and Ethernet connections. In fact pretty much the only things with power during sleep is the RAM, and the flashing light. There is some power to your ethernet connectivity, but just enough to power the listening capability to "Wake with Network activity."
 
ummmm.... normally when one's computer is in sleep mode, one is not actively using said computer. why would it be necessary for said person to be logged into an instant messaging service if one is not actively using their computer?


correct me if i am wrong, but my understanding of an im service it that it is used to instant message someone, to converse. i find this difficult to do if i am not using the computer, so why is it necessary to be logged on an im account if i am not using the computer?
 
If you don't turn your machine off (or let it sleep) your status in MSN messenger just goes to "away" and therefore others know you are not available. The second you move the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard your status returns to "available" (all done in the background with no user intervention needed). So you never need to acutally log out or close/open the program. You just always have it running. If you power down your machine and then re-boot you can have it automatically launch at startup and log you in (this is fine too).

The problem only arises if you let your computer sleep. You lose the ethernet connection like Patrick says and then when you wake the computer you have an error message waiting saying that MSN messenger has lost it's connection. You then have to acknowledge the error message and then log in again.

I'm not sure if iChat works the same way, but all of my friends use MSN messenger so I need to keep using it (or convince everyone else to change).

So I guess my only solution is to either stop using sleep and just let my machine run 24 hours a day, or just power down after each use.

Is there any negative to just letting my machine (DP 2.0 G5) stay on all the time? I'll turn the monitor off, but is there any significant amount of wear and tear on the machine that I should be concerned with?

Thanks.
 
-amberashby

No, there's no harm in running it 24x7. In fact, because it is UNIX, it really is supposed to never be turned off.

Just have your Energy Saver pref to power down your monitor after 30min or so. Spin down your drives when needed, but never let it sleep.

But I don't understand why you need Messenger on alll the time. It should present you with all messages sent to you offline when next you login.
 
I think I'll just leave it on 24/7 like you suggested.

The only reason I like to leave messenger signed on all the time is because I don't like to have to constantly log off/ log on everytime I walk away from my machine. If I don't log off and the computer sleeps I get that error and then have to log back on. Maybe I'm just lazy. It would be nice if it could automatically log off on sleep and then automatically log back on when waking out of sleep, but I guess that is not possible.

Thanks for the help.
 
I think I understand what he means. If I forget to quit iChat when I put my PowerBook to sleep, it automatically reconnects as soon as it wakes up. If MSN doesn't do that, I doubt it is that big of a deal to just restart it, though. All you need to do is click on the icon and voila, it is on.
 
I didn't know iChat could handle sleep. Time to convert my PC friends to AOL IM or maybe just a Mac. :)
 
If you really need to keep the machine awake, you could look into Folding@home over in the Distributed Computing section.

It will soak up your extra CPU cycles and you'll be helping people and showing support for MacRumors. :)
 
Originally posted by patrick0brien
No, there's no harm in running it 24x7.
Click to expand...

There is one... it's wasting energy, costs a significant amount of money (electricity bill) and wasting energy damages the environment...

I always just have my computers on, when I am actually working with them, even if I leave my desk just for an hour they "go to bed". If I don't work with them foreseeable for several days in a row (of whichever reason) I shut them down completely and unplug them, because they even draw power when they are shut down.

I don't expect everybody to follow my example, but I just wanted to remind you how much electricity a modern computer sucks these days. I assume the typical power consumption of a G5 will be around 200Watts with peaks way higher than that. That makes at least 4.8kWh per day, or 144kWh per
month, or 1728kWh per year...

Regards,

groovebuster
 
sorry, I spoke too soon. The new version has the same problem. Though not all the time for some reason.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back