Web query against MSN Money

[RossR]

I posted the below to various technical support groups. Anyone have any ideas?

________________________________________________________

I have been passed across multiple technical support groups, with each
stating that the problem is in another area. This email is being sent to the
Office, MSN, and Money technical support groups. Surely one of you should own
the problem.

The problem is with the MSN Money website. I have used Excel web queries for
years to download financial data. In the last couple of weeks it has stopped
working BECAUSE A CHANGE HAS BEEN MADE TO THE WEBSITE. I am trying to cut my
losses at this point and determine if it is temporary, and if anyone is
working on it, or if MSN has decided to not allow download of financial data.

The simplest description of the problem is as follows:

1. Using a new Excel workbook with no data.
2. Use the Data/Import External Data/New Web Query menu selection.
3. Use the browser window to browse to the data, such as the basic quotes
table in MSN, and select the table.
4. Select Import.

The following message dialog is displayed:

Unable to open http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=aig.
The Internet site reports that a connection was established but the data is
not available.

This occurs every time an import is attempted, and has been occuring for
about the last two or three weeks.

The same query works fine against Yahoo or Morningstar, so the problem is
with the MSN Money website.

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Following your steps, it worked fine for me in Excel 2003

I specified:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=aig

if I just did

http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote

I could enter the symbol and hit the go button. Then when the table
appeared, hitting import imported the information.

 

[Don Guillett]

Why use MSN when you know how to use Yahoo which is MUCH better?

 

[RossR]

Thanks for both of your replies.

Hmm. It fails for me every time. I wondered if Excel might be corrupted, but
it works every time against other websites. I've tried it with my workbook
that I've been using to download for years, as well as a completely clean
workbook, and get the same results.

The only reason I wanted to stay with MSN is that I've got a lot of
programming behind the workbook for stock analysis that is tied to the MSN
data, primarily all the labels identifying the data, and I didn't want to
spend the time modifying it. If I had it to do over again, I would have used
Yahoo, and may still be forced into that solution.

 

[PortMgr]

RossR, I have exactly the same problem. I've had the same tech support
responses - I've tried to tell them (as you) that the problem correlates to
their new website, but the feedback continues to be focused on making tweak
at my end.

I've posted for feedback, as well. We'll see.

 

[RossR]

The initial response from the Microsoft Money tech support group. I have
Excel 2003 with all available updates. I've notified them, and am waiting for
a further response
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ross, before moving on, I would like to confirm if you are using the old
version Microsoft Excel program, such as Excel 2002 or Excel 2000. As you may
know, our MSN Money web site has been upgraded to a new version recently. In
this new version, our product group uses some advanced technology, and
the data query process has been changed. Therefore, the data import may not
be supported in old version Microsoft Excel now. Thank you for your
understanding.

However, I have tested the issue in Microsoft Excel 2003, and the
information can be properly imported. In this situation, if you are using the
old version Excel program, I would suggest upgrading to Microsoft Excel 2003,
and I believe the MSN Money information can be successfully imported