Remote Assistance not working on MSN

I tried to invite a friend to take over my computer to show me a difficult installation process. Msn gave me the message that I didn't have the latest version of MSN, and provided a link to download a new version. I uninstalled the old one, and installed the new one, but as it turned out, I already did have the latest version. MSN still wont allow me to use remote assistance, and claims my version is too old. I'm on Version 8.1.

I have enabled remote assistance in my computer properties. What else might I be missing?

I'm on XP pro, SP2.

 

The tutor says that you must use Windows Messenger (the XP one) which is different from MSN Messenger. Only used remote once years ago, so don't know much about it. There are other programs that can do same, but again don't know much about them, IT at work installed.

Tutor is here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx

Might ask Malware for a good program or ideas, I've read Windows Messenger is considered a security risk and really don't know much about it.

 

Thank you!

Strange, I'm sure I have used remote assistance before, and that must have been on msn, because the windows messenger is the first thing to be completely removed after an OS install... Maybe it used to work on msn, but doesn't anymore. If that is the case, I won't use remote assistance... Darn it! I agree with those saying that windows messenger is a security risk, not to mention extremely annoying...