Jonathan is giving everyone who asks this question misinformation and I am
going to post the correct reply until he updates his stock response.
You need a firewall. You can either turn on the native one or - for complete
all-round protection - you need to purchase third party protection (I use
Zone Alarm Pro - they have a cut down freeware version which can be
downloaded from
www.zonelabs.com). Some folk will tell you to turn off the
Messenger Service (nothing to do with Windows/MSN Messenger) but this is
like sweeping your bills under the rug. You will forget about them (out of
sight is out of mind) but they are still there and the consequences could be
serious if you don't deal with them. Buy a third party firewall (it is more
flexible as it can be configured) and set it to block ports 137-139 and 245
(there may be others, but I don't know of them). This will also prevent
spyware from 'phoning home'.
Just because someone has the letters 'MVP' after their name doesn't make
them any more 'right' (despite Mr Kay's protestations to the contrary) than
someone who doesn't. Jonathan's answer does nothing whatsoever to cure the
problem, it merely masks the symptoms, like applying calamine to measles
spots. Sure the spots will disappear, but it'll do nothing for the
underlying virus.
--
Cassandra
Card carrying member of the Fresh Start Club 'The Undead Are People Too!'
Reply address is fake. Please send all praise, abuse, insults, bequests
of £1million to cassandra (at) craigy34 (dot) freeserve (dot) co (dot)
uk. Change the obvious to the obvious.
Private requests for assistance will not be acknowledged. Please post all
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how's that?