Connected to Internet, but Messenger won't connect

Hi! I am currently connected to the Internet - no problems surfing with Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or Explorer, but I cannot sign into Messenger. I downloaded the mandatory upgrade, and it hasn't worked since then. I get error 80072efd, and I have followed all of the instructions on the Windows Live Help page, to no avail. Interestingly, I cannot connect to a security update for McAfee, either. I also followed all of their instructions (including disabling the autotuning), and it still won't connect. I tried rebooting, doing the task manager thing (stopping the program), and disabling my firewall also. (All based on things I've seen on other forums.)

Can anyone help? How can I be connected to the web, and not having any other troubles, but these programs won't connect?

Check the date and time settings on your computer

So sorry - I forgot to mention that I'd done that as well. The month, day, year, and time zone/time are all correct.

this error is country specific (affects only some countries) and means that Microsoft currently doesn't allow the beta to be used because they are doing some maintenance.

If it continues, downgrade to the latest public full release, in this case MSN Messenger 6.2, see if you can log in, and if yes, wait for the full public (non beta) release of MSN Messenger 7.

Did some research and came up with that,,

What error are you getting for mcfae updates? check your security level on IE...