Windows Live/Outlook Connector - Category Synchronization

I have been using Outlook/Outlook Connector fairly successfully for several
years and have been able to have "category" information properly synchronized
between my four computers configured to a single premium MSN account.
Recently, I upgraded my computers to the latest Outlook Connector (12.1) and
did not notice whether the categories were properly synchronized. I recently
did a clean up of duplicates in my contacts and now notice that my baseline
dataset that has categories is not synchronizing to my other computers. Has
there been a change in Outlook Connector regarding the synchronization of
Outlook "categories"? Or, is there a lag in the synchronization of this data
field. I've noticed a significantly longer time for synchronization to occur
between my computers and the Live web site. A recent synchronization took
4-6 hours between computers and I'm still waiting over 12 hours to see the
changes on the Live web site.

Thanks in advance,
J Austin