Certain users must make repeated attempts to sign in to Live Communications Server 2003 (834472)

SYMPTOMS

When certain Microsoft Windows Messenger 5.0 users try to sign in to Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, the users experience the following symptoms:

The users must make repeated attempts to sign in before the users are successful.
Sometimes, the users can sign in successfully on the first attempt.
When a sign-in attempt is unsuccessful, the users receive the following error message:
Signing in to SIP Communications Service failed because the service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.
If the users sign in by specifying the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that is running Live Communications Server, the users can successfully sign in on the first attempt.

This issue is intermittent. Sometimes, the Windows Messenger users can sign in to Live Communications Server on the first attempt. This issue only affects certain users. Other users can sign in to Live Communications Server without experiencing this issue.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if more than one network adapter is installed on the computer that is running Live Communications Server. In this scenario, both of the following conditions may exist:

Users who are connected to one of the subnets that the computer that is running Live Communications Server is on can sign in successfully.
Users who are connected to the other subnet that the computer that is running Live Communications Server is on experience all the symptoms that are described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, remove one of the network adapters from the computer that is running Live Communications Server, and then configure the computer so that it is connected to only one subnet.

MORE INFORMATION

Live Communications Server 2003 supports only one network adapter on the computer that is configured as a home server. You can use multiple network adapters when Live Communications Server is running on a computer that is configured as a front-end server or as a proxy server.