Messenger service

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oz
  • Start date Start date
You need a firewall. 'Messenger spam', is not in itself harmful,
but is symptomatic of a larger problem - your computer has ports open from
the Internet.

You can disable the Messenger service, but that is unwise as a solution as
you'll still have the underlying problem that caused you to get the messages
in the first place - consider the messages a useful warning that you have no
protection from the Internet.

For a standalone machine, see www.sygate.com for a free personal firewall.

See http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm for more info.
 
I do have a firewall. I'm using Zone alarm. Is there a setting I need to
make to stop the messages? And I am about to pitch my hub and replace it
with a router. Will that do the trick?
 
You need to block port 135 inbound (both UDP and TCP).

However, since your firewall setup doesn't seem to be doing its job, I would
put it back to its default setting of blocking everything and start again.

A NAT router will provide more protection. However, it only provides
protection from connections coming inbound. If you download (conciously or
uncounciously) a pice of dodgy code (via an ActiveX control on the web or by
opening an infected e-mail, for example) you wont have protection. For a
home network, such a router along with a software firewall is about as good
as it gets. Proper hardware firewalls are not cheap.

However, software firewalls are only as good as their configuration and
yours doesn't seem to be configured correctly at the moment.

Regards

Oli
 
If u r talking about the grey boxed messages then U dont
need a firewall

Use the admin tool services( you may have to enable these
on your start menu settings!!!!

Half way down the list is a service
called ....messenger ... and its not msn messenger as it
states!!!!!!!!!!!!


click for the properties of this service and where
apropiate select dissable.......restart and problem solved


hope this helps

tony
 
You're absolutely right - but $135 US is pretty cheap, and you can specify
which ports you want blocked both inbound and outbound in the Netgear models
I've used for small offices. :-)
 
It is the grey box that just appears in the middle of the screen that says
messenger service. I traced the app causing it, through task manager and it
was a .dll in the winnt folder so I didn't want to mess with it until I
consulted this newsgroup.
 
I found the setting in in admin tools/services and changed it's properties
to disabled. Now only time will tell if it works.

Thanks for your help all.
 
Ix-nay - this is bad advice. Disabling messenger merely hides the symptom of
the larger problem, just as taking the batteries out of the smoke detector
doesn't protect you from fires. The real solution to having open ports is to
block them.

For a standalone machine, see www.sygate.com for a free personal firewall.

See http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm for more info.
 
Wow. I'll have to take a look at those, particularly for the outbound port
blocking.

Cheers

Oli

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
 
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