"Jared" said:
Go into windows services and change the messenger service
to manual...that should fix your problem...
No, that will only conceal the problem. While he may not realise it, the
original poster really has _two_ problems. The visible one is that the
Messenger Service keeps popping up. When you analyse _why_ that keeps
happening, you get the following answer: "because it is receiving and
accepting forged packets from the Internet on the NetBIOS and RPC ports".
To a network person, that rings alarm bells, because there have been many
exploits that rely on RPC faults, including one that's due to hit any day
now [some "helpful" people have posted sample code in public places to
demonstrate the flaw, which means it's now available for hordes of spotty
oiks with nothing better to do than line themselves up for jail time by
releasing viruses into the wild].
Fixing _that_ problem is a two-fold process. First, you install the most
recent updates from the Windows Update sites - that gets rid of the specific
flaw. Then, to make sure that flaws which are as yet undiscovered do not
affect you in the future, you lock down your system so that it's not even
receiving those forged packets. Because, believe me, you don't need to
accept packets from anyone and everyone (not even for those naughty little
peer-to-peer piracy programs).
So, what you do is you install a "firewall", and you make sure that the
firewall stops the extra traffic. Here's a good page on how to do that, and
it's from Microsoft, so you know it'll work even after they release updated
versions:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp
Hmm, and whaddyaknow? As soon as you enable the firewall (and clear out any
backlogged Messenger Service spam), the spam is gone. [Not the email spam -
there's no good answer to email spam]
Leaving the Messenger Service running is a pretty good idea, because then
you'll notice just as soon as anything goes wrong in your firewall. Oh, and
there are utilities that use the Messenger Service for bona-fide output.
Alun.
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[Please don't email posters, if a Usenet response is appropriate.]
