messenger help and a couple of other questions

Hello helpful people. my daughters linux version of aspire one did get messenger to work with msn but now it will not load anything when she clicks on the messenger icon. you just get the moving circle then back to a mouse pointer with the desktop remaining the same. Is it something she may have done or is there a problem with messenger software that has just developed.

Also and apologies for the off topic of my next questions:

1. Does she need a firewall and/or anti virus software for this system as I have heard both yes and no answers. If i do need software what is recommended as easy to use.

2. It appears that media master does have the facility to transfer cd music to memory stick. Does anyone recommend software for this also.

thanks on behalf of my daughter

Karl