Killing the Messenger

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Herwin
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike Herwin

How can I kill Messenger. I am totally fed up with girls
in Moscow offering to be my friend and even more with
purchasable programmes offering me ways of killing their
future adds eg End Ads, Bye Ads etc etc coming up several
times a day..
I have tried to remove Messenger but it resolutely refuses
to go
In fact why doesn't Microsoft totally abolish Messenger
which is such a pain in the butt, when you are trying to
get work done

Mike Herwin
 
What one Messenger service or Windows Messenger ???

Windows Messenger

http://messenger.jonathankay.com/step1.aspx?ID=7

Messenger Service

Start Method : goto Start > Run > Type "msconfig" on the
Start Config. Menu go to Services Tab , go down the list
to "Messenger" uncheck, apply> ok re-boot. you will get a
warning when you re-boot >ok Done.

Or go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
Messengerservice Delete Key. You can export it in case you
want it again,
then delete. Reboot
 
What one Messenger service or Windows Messenger ???

Windows Messenger

http://messenger.jonathankay.com/step1.aspx?ID=7

Messenger Service

Start Method : goto Start > Run > Type "msconfig" on the
Start Config. Menu go to Services Tab , go down the list
to "Messenger" uncheck, apply> ok re-boot. you will get a
warning when you re-boot >ok Done.

But this only cures the SYMPTOMS not the CAUSE. The netbios ports are
still WIDE OPEN. The ONLY sure cure is a good firewall.
 
Cari said:
See the KB article at:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302089
How to Prevent Windows Messenger from Running on a Windows XP-Based
Computer

Cari
www.coribright.com


Cari,

Try again - I don't think he means Windows Messenger at all, he means the
messenger service.


--
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
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Willit said:
What one Messenger service or Windows Messenger ???

Windows Messenger

http://messenger.jonathankay.com/step1.aspx?ID=7

Messenger Service

Start Method : goto Start > Run > Type "msconfig" on the
Start Config. Menu go to Services Tab , go down the list
to "Messenger" uncheck, apply> ok re-boot. you will get a
warning when you re-boot >ok Done.

Or go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
Messengerservice Delete Key. You can export it in case you
want it again,
then delete. Reboot


Disabling the Messenger Service, in order to stop the pop-up advertising, is
a particularly foolish thing to do. There are other processes which rely on
that service and, by stopping it, you are cutting off their line of
communication with you. This particularly applies to firewall and AV
software.

Stopping the service is akin to trying to cure measles by applying calamine
to the spots. Whilst it will cure the spots, it will do nothing for the
virus the of which they are a symptom. The reason you are receiving the
advertisments is because your computer is broadcasting open NetBios ports.
By installing a firewall (even turning on the ICF would do, though it only
stops incoming traffic and does nothing to block spyware and/or trojans from
'phoning home') you stop the problem at source.



--
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 correspondence to the group so that all may benefit. Thank you.
 
FYI to Cari, PA Bear and Willit, - he's not talking about Windows Messenger
or MSN Messenger. What he's reffering to is the messenger service that
spammers are not abusing.

Mike,
Activate your XP firewall. Go to start, help and support and search for
firewall. That'll explain what you need to do.

--
Posted 'as is'. If there are any spelling and/or grammar mistakes, they
were a direct result of my fingers and brain not being synchronized or my
lack of caffeine.

Mike
 
If they say messenger service in the title bar, these 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 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.
 
typo, ...the messenger service that spammers are NOW abusing...

--
Posted 'as is'. If there are any spelling and/or grammar mistakes, they
were a direct result of my fingers and brain not being synchronized or my
lack of caffeine.

Mike
 
WHO CARES IF THEY GET A FIREWALL ......LOL They did not
ask how to stop them , they asked how to kill it !!!!!!!!!
 
People who want their computer to operate properly, and still kill the
pop-ups, would care!
 
Willit said:
WHO CARES IF THEY GET A FIREWALL ......LOL They did not
ask how to stop them , they asked how to kill it !!!!!!!!!


And the difference is...?
--
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 correspondence to the group so that all may benefit. Thank you.
 
It will work just fine without a firewall. A firewall is
no end all , be all anyway. If you want one use it, But
why use it to shoot ppl posts in the foot. Use a condom
and you won't catch anything........lol
 
Not certain what you mean by your reply, but even with the firewall up and
running, people can contact me just fine through messenger.

If I have misread you, please explain further!
 
It will work just fine without a firewall. A firewall is
no end all , be all anyway. If you want one use it, But
why use it to shoot ppl posts in the foot. Use a condom
and you won't catch anything........lol

BUT that leaves your netbios ports wide open to hackers you wanker. READ
some of the other posts on this subject before sticking your foot up
your arse.
 
Hi Mike - These are most likely due to open NetBios ports 135, 137-139
and
445. You really need to block these with a firewall as a general
protection measure. You can stop the popups by turning off Messenger
Service; however, this still leaves you vulnerable.

See: Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904 which identifies reasons
to keep this service and steps to take if you do.

You can test your system and follow the 'Prevention' link to get
additional information here:
http://www.mynetwatchman.com/winpopuptester.asp Unless you have very
good reasons to keep this active, it should be turned off in Win2k and
XP. Go here and do what it says:
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/docs/messagepopup/ or, even better,
get MessageSubtract, free, here, which will give you flexible control of
the service and viewing of these messages:
http://www.intermute.com/messagesubtract/help.html Recommended.

(FWIW, ZoneAlarm's default Internet Zone firewall configuration blocks
the necessary ports to prevent this use of Messenger Service. I don't
know the situation with regard to other firewalls.)

Messenger Service is not per se Spyware or something that MS did wrong -
It provides a messaging capability which is useful for local intranets
and is also sometimes (albeit nowdays infrequently) used by some
applications to
provide popup messaages to users. However, it can also be (and now
frequently is) used to introduce spam via this open NetBios channel.
For a single user home computer, it normally isn't needed and can be
turned off which will eliminate the spam popups. This DOESN'T, however,
remove the vulnerability of having these ports open, when in fact they
aren't needed, since they can be perverted in other ways as well, some
of which can be much more damaging than just a spam popup.



--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
Please respond in original thread in Newsgroup.




In [email protected], Mike Herwin typed:
 
Willit said:
It will work just fine without a firewall. A firewall is
no end all , be all anyway. If you want one use it, But
why use it to shoot ppl posts in the foot. Use a condom
and you won't catch anything........lol


Maybe if your father had used one, you wouldn't be around cluttering up a
space on the planet that could have been given to something vaguely sapient.
--
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 correspondence to the group so that all may benefit. Thank you.
 
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