Trouble signing into Netflix in Media Center: "There was a problem signing in. Verify your internet connection is working and try again."

Well, that's a rude answer up there and it doesn't even offer a solution.

I had this problem for a while on Win7. I tried a few possible solutions I found online, but nothing worked until I completely uninstalled SIlverlight (including the cache), rebooted my machine, and reinstalled the lastest version fresh fromthe Silverlight home page. Everything works fine now.

The most likely explanation is NetFlix changed something in their authentication routine (i.e. SOAP structure or just a URL string, doesn't matter) and that broke the Vista NetFlix WMC client. It didn't affect the NetFlix web interface because, being a NetFlix operated service, they were obviously aware of the pending change and adjusted their web client to use the new method.

The NetFlix WMC client in Windows 7 (being a new product), was probably already coded to use the new method. The client in Vista continued to work with the old method until NetFlix finally shut that method down. Microsoft, slow to respond and assign developers to fixing the Vista NetFlix WMC client missed the deadline and Vista users were in the dark for awhile.

It is pretty standard stuff for web services that cross corporate barriers. Especially involving slow-moving mega-corps like Microsoft. One company changes a routine and the other has to play catch up. Communication is often difficult just between divisions within a company, between companies it is often non-existent.

The level of prissy whining in this thread was good for a laugh though. The people threatening to cancel NetFlix ::rolleyes:: your access still worked on their website. You were not without service, just without the convenience of WMC. The people bitching at Microsoft... does anyone know if Microsoft was even properly informed of *when* NetFlix was going to turn off the old authentication? If they were told the night before (or not at all) "Hey we're switching off the old authentication routine" what kind of response would you expect? How long has it been since the problem started, 28 days? That is actually a pretty quick turn-around for a relatively low-priority item. Or it could just be that NetFlix re-activated their old authentication methods as a temporary fix to this problem (that they share some part in creating) until Microsoft can officially respond with an update.

Now if Microsoft was given proper advanced notice of the service change and still dragged their feet (entirely possible) I give them no slack. But at the end of the day it is still a low-priority issue. It is fixed now, be happy until the next time NetFlix changes their authentication routine.