50+ unwanted messenger popups per day - worse than spam, help

[D Este]

I talked to Comcast and the tec there told me to do the
following to stop the win messanger pop ups--if you have
Win xp. Click control panel--switch to classic view on
the left screen if you are not already on it. Click
Administrative Tools Click services click
messanger click messanger properties - General
tab., Where it says "start up type" - if box is checked
for automatic - uncheck it and apply--Try this to see if
it helps. I bought Mcafee Internet Security which was
free after rebates from Office Depot so that blocks all
pop ups so i can't tell if this helps me or not . I gave
this info to a friend and it helped him stop the pop ups.

 

[Shenan T. Stanley]

I talked to Comcast and the tec there told me to do the
following to stop the win messanger pop ups--if you have
Win xp. Click control panel--switch to classic view on
the left screen if you are not already on it. Click
Administrative Tools Click services click
messanger click messanger properties - General
tab., Where it says "start up type" - if box is checked
for automatic - uncheck it and apply--Try this to see if
it helps. I bought Mcafee Internet Security which was
free after rebates from Office Depot so that blocks all
pop ups so i can't tell if this helps me or not . I gave
this info to a friend and it helped him stop the pop ups.

Did they also pronounce it "messanger"? It's Messenger. If you see it as
much as everyone claims, you'd figure SOMEONE would be able to spell it! heh

First read the web pages found in my signature. They explain how you could
have found this information through searches, etc.

Secondly, the information directly below this can tell you about popups and
all the FREE ways you can stop them - including ways built into Windows XP.

Advice on Popups and their elimination:

http://www.fracas.net/newsgroups/generaladvice.html#popups
or
http://tinyurl.com/el9s

You may want to look over the whole page.

 

[Alun Jones [MS MVP]]

I talked to Comcast and the tec there told me to do the
following to stop the win messanger pop ups--if you have
Win xp.

Call your guy at Comcast, and tell him you're cancelling your subscription
to their service, because if the rest of their security is as lousy as the
advice he gave you, you can pretty much guarantee that their system is full
of flaws, bugs, viruses and trojans.

Messenger, in this case, is acting like a "canary". It's telling you that
people from outside your network are getting to send random unauthorised
packets into your system. Disabling Messenger will not prevent this - the
packets will still arrive unmolested, and several of those packets are
designed not to display adverts, but to attack components in your system.

"My brakes are squealing"
"So turn up your stereo"

In fact, the security patch announced two days ago refers to an attack over
exactly the same ports that are used to send the adverts to Messenger. By
disabling Messenger, all you've done is closed your eyes to a potentially
dangerous problem.

What you need to do, instead of closing your eyes, is to close your system -
don't allow any incoming packets, except those that you requested.

You can do this using a firewall. If you only have one system connected to
the Internet, that's really easy - you just enable ICF - the Internet
Connection Firewall. There are some good instructions at
<URL:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.
asp>.

If you have several systems connected to the Internet, they will all connect
through one 'box' - if this is a computer, you can enable ICF on that
machine; if it is a router, then it will have firewall settings. Lock down
the firewall completely, disallowing all incoming connections. Then, if you
find that you need incoming connections on any particular port, enable them
only on that port.

If it's any reassurance, I've been developing TCP/IP applications for over a
decade now, and I've not seen any reason to allow incoming connections at my
home or office.

Keep Messenger in place and running, so you'll have a reminder in place if
the firewall ever stops working.

Alun.
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