Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service is a "head in the sand" approach to computer security.
Jesus Bruce you sound like a broken record. If you don't use the service
then turn it off. There is no reason to have a program sucking memory and
cycles and in addition is a security risk if you don't use it. If you want
added security then apply level and add a firewall. But To say turning off a
function that had no need to connect accross public networks via tcp on a
open protocol that can been seen by everyone and has no securty ok to leave
running.
The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups; they're
actually providing a useful 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?
Usefull that unwanted people can use it to spam? thats questionable..
Equivalent Scenario 1: Somewhere in a house, a small fire starts,
and sets off the smoke alarm. You, not immediately seeing any
fire/smoke, complain about the noise of the smoke detector, and are
advised to remove the smoke detector's battery and go back to sleep.
bad analagy...... This assumes that mesenger spam is going to save you while
instead it is just another flaw in a already broken security model.
Equivalent Scenario 2: You over-exert your shoulder at work or
play, causing bursitis. After weeks of annoying and sometimes
excruciating pain whenever you try to reach over your head, you go to
a doctor and say, while demonstrating the motion, "Doc, it hurts when
I do this." The doctor, being as helpful as some of your respondents,
replies, "Well, don't do that."
again another bad analagy.. Part of the solution if you don't use it is to
turn it off. Do you run every applience in your house regardless of weither
someone is there to use it.. I don't think so.. so why keep services running
that people don't even now exist that now is a security hazard.
..
I'm beginning to think that the people deliberately posting such
bad advice are hacker-wannabes who have no true interest in helping
you secure your system, but would rather give you a false sense of
security while ensuring that your computer is still open to
exploitation.
I'm afraid you have no idea about computer security and want to blindly give
faith to microsoft products when the rest of the world already know their
track record and deals with them because they are the lesser of the evils
not because it is a perect product. I say it is you with your head in the
sand. If you really believe that messenger spam save us by teaching us that
MS has no concept of security then you need a reality check.
DP
