I opened the launcher and I noticed I had gotten 1.5.2, however when I chose my version, 1.7.9 with mcpatcher it would not let me go on multiplayer.
I started again and chose 1.7.10 no mcpatcher. I still could not join any server.

1. open minecraft launcher version 1.5.2
2. play minecraft any version
3. try to go on multiplayer.
4. it will tell you it is currently down for maintenance.