When you say it was built with the root in mind, do you mean web application or site collection? I cannot get it to work on a site collection within a web application, except for the top-level site collection - i.e. http://www.domain.com works, whereas the site collection http://www.domain.com/sitecollection does not work. I get "Could not load contacts at this time" in the messenger contact list webpart and "Could not load messages at this time" when trying to send a message. ULS logs unfortunately are of no help. I've redeployed the feature, restarted timer service, ensured permissions are set correctly, etc. You mention if adding the webpart to a subsite to specify the "root site" in the webpart properties - where in the webpart properties should this be? All I see are the Appearance, Layout, and Advanced sections in the properties with nothing close to specifying which site to use for the list. Does this only work on the top-level site collection of a web application?
Thanks in advance,
Tyler
Thanks in advance,
Tyler