Setting up an MSN-XMPP account in !BitlBee
Microsoft claims that newer Skype clients should be used to access MSN, actually those contacts are reached using XMPP, not Skype's native protocol. Here is how you can see those old MSN contacts in BitlBee. (And not by using the Skype plugin.)
Connecting using OAuth
If your login is alice@live.com, use alice@messenger.live.com as login.
If you have a non-live.com domain, just write anything before @messenger.live.com as username (for example "whatever@messenger.live.com" will work fine), and the server will send you the correct JID after the oauth login.
1 <alice> account add jabber alice@messenger.live.com
2 <root> Account successfully added with tag jabber
3 <root> You can now use the /OPER command to enter the password
4 <root> Alternatively, enable OAuth if the account supports it: account jabber set oauth on
5 <alice> acc jabber set oauth on
6 <root> oauth = `on'
7 <alice> acc jabber on
8 <root> jabber - Logging in: Starting OAuth authentication
From there on, just follow the on-screen instructions and you will be all set.
Other tips
Change the account tag to something other than jabber:
1 <alice> account jabber set tag msnxmpp
When the server sends you the correct JID:
1 <root> msnxmpp - Logging in: Server claims your JID is `c319xxxxxxxx393f@messenger.live.com' instead of `alice@messenger.live.com'. This mismatch may cause problems with groupchats and possibly other things
Copy that JID from the message you receive and set it to "username":
If you don't get human readable nicks and want to use the "full name" field instead:
1 <alice> account msnxmpp set nick_source full_name
Or prefix the real names with "msn":
1 <alice> account msnxmpp set nick_format msn-%full_name