Question

how to get pop-up to go away ?

Asked by: dlyons

In the morning lately I have been getting large pop-ups when I first log-on to my home computer (XP).  They are large rectangles called "MESSENGER SERVICE" and usually advertise software to stop spam but sometimes porn. Daughter has a ton of software installed but i can't find where the pop-ups are getting access. Any help much appreciated. Dave

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2003-05-29 at 03:54:02ID20629976
Topic

Windows Network Security

Participating Experts
9
Points
250
Comments
12

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Stopping messenger spam
    I have recently upgraded to XP but now I am getting spammed by unsavory sites advertisements on messenger so it pops up at inconvenient times. How do I get rid of this. I wasnt even a member of MSN when this started, but I joined to see if I could stop it. Please help, if ...
  2. messenger service pop ups
    is it possible to stop messenger service pop ups. ? if so, how do i achieve this mind numbing feat.
  3. want daughters hotmail passwords
    my daughter has been sending and receiving questionable matterial in her hotmail account and i wish i had her password. where can i find it within windows
  4. Mass amounts of Asian porn spam
    I have one single user, who just happens to be our CEO, who is getting about 30-40 Asian porn spam emails a day.....I've checked the headers on alot of them, and they're always from a different address (yahoo,hotmail,daum.net,etc...) and the IP addresses are always different ...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: ewtaylorPosted on 2003-05-29 at 04:01:23ID: 8604865

If your daughter has kazaa close the kazaa desktop. My daughter does that to me. Also you might want to run adaware that will get rid of the spyware, this will remove them but may also uninstall some of your daughters programs.  If all that fails you could use something like naviscope to actually block the popups (this will allow your daughter to use her programs).

 

by: oBdAPosted on 2003-05-29 at 05:20:55ID: 8605237

That's, as the title says, coming from the messenger service (which is not related to the Windows Messenger).
It's not necessarily resulting from local programs; depending on your Internet connection, everybody can send one to you.
If it's your home computer (and especially if you don't have a home network), you probably don't need the messenger service. Right-click "My Computer", choose "Manage", select "Services" under "Services and Applications", and look for "Messenger Service" in the right pane. Double-click it, stop the service, set the start type to "Disabled".
Be aware, though, that this is mainly curing symptoms, not the causes. You might want to look into a personal firewall (like http://www.zonealarm.com/), or consider to make your internet connection through a cheap router with integrated firewall.

 

by: BembiPosted on 2003-05-29 at 05:27:55ID: 8605284

You may have spyware like gator etc. on your machine. Download ad-aware from

http://www.lavasoft.de/
(its a swedish company)

The free version should be ok for your problem. Scan your PC and remove, what ad-aware has found. There may be also a lot of cookies, normally is is no problem to delete them.

Keep in mind, that some software will not longer be able to run, if the spyware is removed. The companies often offers a free version with spyware and a spyware-free version you have to pay for.

Spyware does not destroy anything, you you never can be shure, which information is trafered to them. The sense is to collect a lot of information about you to send you advertising offers.

Regards

 

by: sehwagPosted on 2003-05-29 at 07:44:52ID: 8606294

Hi,

This is sehwag,

spybot software is the best solution for u, i had the same problem but spybot gave me a good hand and it totally rectified the problem and it also immunizes ur pc for further spywares.

God bless u and ur family my friend.

bye.

 

by: pbarrettePosted on 2003-05-29 at 11:15:51ID: 8607930

Hi dlyons,

oBdA has it on the nose. If you are running a firewall, or have a home router, you can block ports 135 and 139 to stop the spam.

More information on this specific problem is here:
http://www.practical-tech.com/infrastructure/i11042002.htm

pb

 

by: trywaredkPosted on 2003-05-29 at 12:35:51ID: 8608416

I agree with the other answers about firewall and spyware.

If it only helps you in the future, but does'nt clean your computer, it might be something else nagging you.

Try this free online Trend Housecall scannner to find and clean every known virus/rootkits/backdoors:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Many Regards
Jorgen Malmgren
IT-Supervisor
Denmark

:o) Your brain is like a parachute. It works best when it's open



 

by: ghanaPosted on 2003-05-29 at 22:08:21ID: 8611446

I agree with oBdA and pbarrette. If the window title is "MESSENGER SERVICE" then this is spam sent to your computer using the Mirosoft Messenger Service. It has nothing to do with spyware, adware, viruses or trojans on your computer. That's why software like SpyBot, AdAware and also antivirus products can't do anything against this kind of spam. You need to install a personal firewall like mentioned before or disable the Microsoft Messenger Service.

 

by: ewtaylorPosted on 2003-05-30 at 05:33:39ID: 8613396

Kazaa sometimes spoofs messenger service alerts to get you to click. A spybot destroyer as well as a firewall.

 

by: nilst2000Posted on 2003-05-30 at 08:24:58ID: 8614882

If You use Kazaa some sytem files are changed, they're not restored after an uninstall. Yes, there's tons of spyware in freeware, but if You run a program that removes spyware, like AdAware or Pest Patrol, the spyware can have done havoc to Your system. I, myself, prefer NOT to install P2P-programs or freeware with spyware, that's why my system still runs perfect.

 

by: ghanaPosted on 2003-05-30 at 08:31:10ID: 8614932

> I, myself, prefer NOT to install P2P-programs

That's one of the best suggestions how to avoid all the trouble that is caused by those software!!

 

by: TalamascaPosted on 2003-05-30 at 10:51:32ID: 8616040

To disable it;

Click Start > Settings > Control Panel
Click Administrative Tools
Double click Services
Scroll down and highlight "Messenger"
 Right click the highlight line and choose Properties
Click the STOP button/link

OR

Click Start > Run and type "services.msc" (no quotes) in the Open: line and click OK
In the right pane, scroll down to Messenger.
Double click Messenger and click the General tab.
Under Service Status: click the Stop button.
In the Startup Type: drop down box, select Disable.
Click Apply and OK.

OR

Block NetBIOS ports 135, 137, 138. and 139 through the firewall. Each firewall uses a different method of blocking ports. Consult the firewall documentation or website for information on the proper procedure.

 

by: dlyonsPosted on 2003-05-30 at 18:52:04ID: 8618324

worked great

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...