'messanger service' pop ups

[Jeff]

Does anyone know how I can stop the 'messanger service'
ads from popping up each minute on my monitor. It seems
that this is not an ordinary type of pop up, it may have
been on the original program files.

Thanks.

Jeff

 

[Dave]

Turn on the XP built-in firewall

 

[purplehaz]

Secure your hacker prone computer:

If they say messenger service in the title bar, these pop ups have nothing
to do with MSN messenger or Windows messenger. What this is a new way for
spammers to attack your computer and send you pop-up ads. If you receive
these ads it means that your computers netbios ports are wide open to the
internet and this could be a real security problem. What you should do is
install a good firewall that will block the ports the spammers use and stop
the ads. A good place to start is Zone Alarm ( www.zonelabs.com ) for an
inbound/outbound blocking firewall or use the inbound blocking only firewall
built in to XP. If needed configure the XP firewall to block ports 135,
137-139 and 445. Zone Alarm will block these ports by default.

Use this site to test some of your ports security:
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

You can/should also disable the messenger service, which is the service the
spammers exploit, but it isn't needed to stop the ads and disabling the
service will not secure your computer from outside attacks or block the open
netbios ports.

Note: If the Messenger service is stopped, messages from the Alerter
service (notifications from your antivirus software, for example) are
not transmitted. If the Messenger service is turned off, any services
that explicitly depend on the Messenger service do not start, and an
error message is logged in the System event log. For this reason,
Microsoft recommends that you install a firewall and configure it to
block NetBIOS and RPC traffic instead of turning off the Messenger
service. To turn off the service goto, control panel, administrative tools,
services, find messenger, right click, properties, hit the stop button, set
startup type to manual or disabled.

If the pop-ups appear while surfing web pages then download and install one
of the many pop-up blocker programs. Search www.download.com for popup
blocker, you'll find many free ones.

Also get a good spyware cleaner:

Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/

Ad-aware - http://www.lavasoft.com

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

This type of spam has become quite common over the past year, and
unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It demonstrates
that you haven't been taking sufficient precautions while connected to
the Internet. Your data probably hasn't been compromised by these
specific advertisements, but if you're open to this exploit, you may
well be open to other threats, such as the Blaster Worm that recently
swept cross the Internet. Install and use a decent, properly
configured firewall. (Merely disabling the messenger service, as some
people recommend, only hides the symptom, and does almost nothing to
truly secure your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with"
the security gap represented by these messages is particularly
foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service, by itself, is a "head in the sand" approach to computer
security. The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups;
they're actually providing a useful, if annoying, service by acting as
a security alert. The true problem is the unsecured computer, and
you've been advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this
helpful?


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Kevin Davis³]

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service, by itself, is a "head in the sand" approach to computer
security. The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups;
they're actually providing a useful, if annoying, service by acting as
a security alert. The true problem is the unsecured computer, and
you've been advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this
helpful?

Oh, and don't forget that the Messenger Service would also provide a
useful service to hackers if it is not patched:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-043.asp

Setup a firewall first, but if you don't need the Messenger Service,
turn it off. If you need it, patch it. You would also be well
advised to spend $50 and buy a home router.

Be especially wary of people who would insist on having you keep the
Messenger Service on as a "helpful feature" and conveniently
forgetting to inform you that it has a very serious vulnerability that
needs to be patched immediately.

And of particular interest is that Microsoft itself and security
experts are seriously reconsidering the role of the Messenger service:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/28/HNmessengeroff_1.html

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113321,tk,dn110703X,00.asp

http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5095935.html

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/11/07/microsoft.popup.reut/index.html


Here's a link where Microsoft actually outright advises the user to
turn off the Messenger Service:

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp


Those who would advise not to turn off the Messenger Service for the
less than trivial unintended side benefit of being a warning is
dispensing advice which contradicts the advice of many real security
professionals.

 

[Airkings]

Hi,
Is the firewall appropriate for dialup connections?

 

[Dave]

Yes

Hi,
Is the firewall appropriate for dialup connections?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Yes. Back when I was using a dial-up connection (roughly two
years ago), I had to turn off my firewall's alerts (Not because they
were false, but because there were so many that they became a
nuisance) because I was often getting port-scanned several times each
hour that I was on-line. The intermittent connections and varying IP
address provided by a dial-up ISP proved to be no real protection
against even amateur attempts to find open ports.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[purplehaz]

Yes. Every single person and business that is on the net, no matter what
kind of connection, should always use a firewall.