[Resolved] really annoying popups

[colman77]

Ever since i switched to winxp, I've been getting these really annoying popups...Not in IE popups, just grey boxes with 1 "ok" button to click. At the top, it says "from MORTAGE RATES(or something like that) to (whatever my IP address happens to be)"
How can I stop these????

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Open your Administrative Tools folder, click on the "Services" icon and look for the service designated "Messenger". Right click on it and select "properties". Then, under "startup type", set it to "disabled".

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100584&highlight=messenger

 

[colman77]

thanks!

 

[JohnWill]

What you really should be wondering, is how your firewall is letting these through! You need to properly block them, rather than disable messenger service, since it's used by some real applications, not just for annoying advertisments.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

John, I don't know if the firewall will block that. At least XPs built in one doesn't as far as I know.

Anyway I haven't heard of any issues with dissabling the service. I've done it with no problems. What needed applications are you referring to?

 

[monted]

i thought that service was only used on things like corporate LANS,so the workers could communicate or the admin could message all the workers at once.

spammers have exploited it.

 

[dvk01]

XP built in firewall should block it if set up properly

Some AV programs allegedly use the messenger system to post av warnings to you, also outlook and exchange do use it in certain circumstances

any good firewall will allow you to block the ports that messenger uses which are 135,137,138,139 and 445

a good overview and instruction set is
Here

 

[KeithKman]

I also had this problem, thanks I got it fixed. I have a pic of what mine looks like...

 

[Huon]

The MS Q on the problem suggests that the XP firewall will handle it,

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330904
but I am not sure if it does.
It should probably be tried first though.
They do recommend stopping the service if that doesn't work.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

 

[colman77]

I've got basically no firewalls, not even the xp one, but they went away when I disabled "universal plug and play" using the tool that can be found <a href="http://grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm">here</a>.




And I still run the messenger.

 

[mheffernan72]

...should **always** be disabled. See....

www.grc.com

for more.