Ever since I’ve gone to DSL (last month) I’ve had some strange occurances on my computer. The latest is particularly annoying, but not causing any serious problems.
Every once in a while (no pattern noticed) I get a system dialog box with the title Messenger Service and containing some lame ad for stuff. It often includes a message about contacted some website to learn how to stop these messages. Clearly I’m not going to trust that.
The process that creates these is csrss.exe, which appears to be a required Windows 2000 process so I’m not removing that just yet. I’m off the search the web for more info, any help would be welcomed.
You’re running Windows 2000? Well, I get the same thing in WinXP, and all you have to do is go into your services and disable the “Messenger” service so it doesn’t start up when you boot. It’s a hole in the XP security that allows an outside user to tap into the intranetwork messaging service. Bad Microsoft.
Found the answer soon after looking.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q330904
Looks like a firewall is the only solution. Any suggestions for a good low-priced or free firewall?
First, you should uninstall Windows Messenger if you are using XP (make sure you have service pack 1). Then download Ad-Aware 6 to get rid of any hidden spyware on your system.
ZoneAlarm is a nice free firewall.
I already have Ad-Aware 5.8, does 6.0 give me something much better? This isn’t a result of something on my system, it appears to be a result of having Messenger service running, which I need for other things.
I’m looking at Sygate Personal Firewall 5.0, I’ll take a look at ZoneAlarm as well. Looks like I should have put up a firewall as soon as I went to DSL.
Thanks for all your help.
I catch this same thing on my firewall every couple weeks.
I don’t recommend doing this, as it verifies they have found a valid IP address, but the sender usually has the offending port open and I message them back with the message of my choice (I get their IP from the firewall logs).
You asked for a free firewall … I know of two good ones, ZoneAlarm and Sygate. ZoneAlarm seems simpler, but I use Sygate for what seems like more functionality.
These are both free for individual use. However, being popular, they are also prone to attempts at being disabled by viruses.
No, that’s just one solution, and the toughest one. Further down in the same MS article, it explains the workaround, which consists simply of turning off the Messenger service (this “messenger” has nothing to do with MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messaging - disabling it won’t hurt anything at all).
So, step one is just to disable Messenger service. Still, if you’re connected to the Internet through DSL, you should have a decent firewall for lots of other reasons, so Zonealarm is the way to go.
…Neither of which will help the OP, even though they are probably good ideas in their own right.
Don’t confuse Windows Messenger Service with MSN Instant Messenger - they are two totally different things. A quick Google search revealed a few websites devoted to this annoying new tactic by low-life spammers…oops, we’re not in the pit, are we? Anyway:
http://www.stopmessengerspam.com/
Unfortunately, even if you have an excellent firewall like ZoneAlarm, there’s a fair chance you’re still vulnerable to this spam: you may have already granted “act as a server” rights to the receiver process in question, for unrelated reasons.
Turn off Messenger. No home computer needs it. (And it is not MSN Messenger). In Win2k, You’ll find it under “Services” on the control panel.
The other suggestions are good advice, though.
BTW, AdAware 6.0 is much better than the earlier versions (if only because of the auto update feature). Definitely upgrade.
‘services.msc’ in the run dialog will bring up the services menu where you can disable the ‘Messanger’ service, make sure you set it so it doesn’t restart with the computer.
I was under the impression that Norton Anti-Virus wanted the Messenger Service to be running. Is this incorrect?
I’ve got Sygate Personal Firewall installed but it seems to have an unfortunate interaction with Yahoo Mail. As in I have to temporarily allow all traffic to read my mail on Yahoo. Yahoo Messenger works just fine, but when I try to read the mail I get a timeout. Hrmm…
I can turn it off temporarily to read mail, it’s just a pain.
Maybe I’ll try Zonealarm.
It’s possible NAV uses the Messenger service to send out system alerts. If you turn off that option in NAV, there shouldn’t be a problem. Since you’re using a home computer (which I assume isn’t on a network), the feature isn’t needed, anyway.
I’ve got NAV, and turned off Messenger service a while back. My NAV works just fine, automatically downloading the updated virus definitions and other software updates.
Turn off the Messenger service, and stop over-analyzing the problem!