I got this from one of the Lockergnome newsletters that came out
recently.
Dan
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Pop-up Spammers
I've often wondered how long it would take for the abuse of Microsoft's
Messenger services to begin. This is a network service that listens for
messages, which are displayed on screen when received. You can use this
service to send text messages to other users on the network ("net send"
command from a DOS prompt), provided they have the services running. As
you might expect, this is enabled by default in Windows NT/2K/XP, and
for little reason. I know of very few people that actually use it,
particularly home users. Those of you that are on broadband connections
and are not running a firewall may have seen a strange little window pop
up at you hawking diplomas, inviting you to visit an explicit website or
whatever else our favorite bunch of Internet low-life can dredge up.
I have always been very supportive of a minimalist configuration. Turn
it off by default, then let the user decide if they want it turned on.
As things are, we have all sorts of virtually useless capability built
into Windows and other Microsoft software, and fully enabled by default.
Maybe there's a case to be made for the functionality, but there is not
a case to be made for subjecting the masses to such abuse when the
feature won't be used by the vast majority of users and it's quite easy
to scan the open ports on a workstation to see if the service is
available for abuse. With Windows 2000 and XP seeing much wider
adoption, and port 139 open by default, it was only a matter of time
before it was taken advantage of to pester unsuspecting users.
You can disable the Messenger in Windows 2000/XP by right- clicking My
Computer, selecting Manage from the context menu. Expand Services and
Applications and click Services, which will populate the right window
pane with the long list of services installed. scroll down to Messenger
and double-click the item. In the Startup Type dropdown box, select
Disabled, then click the Stop button in the Service Status section of
the window. From now on, your PC will not be subjected to these pop-up
messages.
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