Julie
December 6th 03, 02:13 PM
I Hate Ads: How To Turn Off Messenger Spam
I take it for granted that most people know how to get ads
off of their systems. But I forget about guys like my dad
who have happily been on AOL for years and have little
knowledge or interest in how their system works, just as
long as it works. For these people, messenger spam is a
real problem.
Messenger spam is different from traditional pop-up ads in
that it is not Web-based. Instead, advertisers use
Microsoft's net send utility, Windows Messenger service,
to send advertisements directly to your desktop. You don't
have to be on the Web at all as long as you are connected
to the Internet. Spammers send the same ad to a range or
block of IP addresses; if yours happens to be one of them,
an ad that looks something like this appears. This is
primarily a problem for Windows XP and 2000 users.
The really irksome thing about messenger spam is that it
is more or less an extortion racket, as companies like
endads.com, fightpopups.com, defeatmessenger.com, and
stopmessenger.com barrage users with messenger ads
advertising software to turn off messenger ads. Don't pay
these weasels a penny; you can do it yourself. I've gotten
a few requests for help on this lately, and seen others
online, so I thought I would post a fix here here.
Auburn University has a great set of instructions on
disabling messenger spam. To turn off messenger spam with
XP Home edition, try this
Click Start->Control Panel
Click Administrative Tools
Click Component Services
Double-click Services Local
Double-click "Messenger" to bring up the options panel
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties
Click the STOP button
Select Disabled or Manual on the Startup Type drop-down
menu
Click OK
Go get yourself a Mac and quit dealing with this kind of
bull****.1
Don't worry, this won't mess with AOL Instant Messenger,
Yahoo Messenger, or MSN Messenger. Chat away, sticky
fingers.
Alternately, you can download and install Windows XP
service pack 1 and then turn on the Internet Connection
Firewall (ICF). ICF will automatically block all inbound
unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic. You can also
try downloading a commercial firewall application such as
Zone Alarm to block your inbound ports. (This isn't a good
option for some folks, but they know who they are.)
If you don't already have one, a pop-up blocker does
wonders for getting rid of pop-up and pop-under ads. There
are lots of free ones out there, I use Pop-Up Stopper by
Panic-Ware and it works brilliantly
If you're still having problems with ads, you've probably
installed some spyware on your system at some point. Ad-
Aware is great program that scans your system and removes
spyware. Be sure to read the help file.
Source: http://honan.net/2003_08_01_archive2.php
I take it for granted that most people know how to get ads
off of their systems. But I forget about guys like my dad
who have happily been on AOL for years and have little
knowledge or interest in how their system works, just as
long as it works. For these people, messenger spam is a
real problem.
Messenger spam is different from traditional pop-up ads in
that it is not Web-based. Instead, advertisers use
Microsoft's net send utility, Windows Messenger service,
to send advertisements directly to your desktop. You don't
have to be on the Web at all as long as you are connected
to the Internet. Spammers send the same ad to a range or
block of IP addresses; if yours happens to be one of them,
an ad that looks something like this appears. This is
primarily a problem for Windows XP and 2000 users.
The really irksome thing about messenger spam is that it
is more or less an extortion racket, as companies like
endads.com, fightpopups.com, defeatmessenger.com, and
stopmessenger.com barrage users with messenger ads
advertising software to turn off messenger ads. Don't pay
these weasels a penny; you can do it yourself. I've gotten
a few requests for help on this lately, and seen others
online, so I thought I would post a fix here here.
Auburn University has a great set of instructions on
disabling messenger spam. To turn off messenger spam with
XP Home edition, try this
Click Start->Control Panel
Click Administrative Tools
Click Component Services
Double-click Services Local
Double-click "Messenger" to bring up the options panel
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties
Click the STOP button
Select Disabled or Manual on the Startup Type drop-down
menu
Click OK
Go get yourself a Mac and quit dealing with this kind of
bull****.1
Don't worry, this won't mess with AOL Instant Messenger,
Yahoo Messenger, or MSN Messenger. Chat away, sticky
fingers.
Alternately, you can download and install Windows XP
service pack 1 and then turn on the Internet Connection
Firewall (ICF). ICF will automatically block all inbound
unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic. You can also
try downloading a commercial firewall application such as
Zone Alarm to block your inbound ports. (This isn't a good
option for some folks, but they know who they are.)
If you don't already have one, a pop-up blocker does
wonders for getting rid of pop-up and pop-under ads. There
are lots of free ones out there, I use Pop-Up Stopper by
Panic-Ware and it works brilliantly
If you're still having problems with ads, you've probably
installed some spyware on your system at some point. Ad-
Aware is great program that scans your system and removes
spyware. Be sure to read the help file.
Source: http://honan.net/2003_08_01_archive2.php