-----Original Message-----
How pray tell does a firewall prevent Pop-ups. Pop-ups
only occur when surfing a site and are not an attempt to
take over your OS or to make changes to it. The XP
firewall is one of the best there is and makes your
computer virtually invisible to anyone looking to hack
into your OS. Pop-Ups are not hacking attempts. You see
when clicking a Universal Resource Locater you are
effectively signing an electronic agreement to allow the
site to activate pop-ups through various methods as a
means of advertising to pay for the site. I am using a
rather old program but one that is the most effective and
that is one that places around 5 thousand DNS suffixes in
windows\system32\drivers\etc file and then pop-ups won't
happen as when your system is checked it effectively says
you already have the pop up so it isn't loaded. Good
luck.
.

There are different types of pop-ups. The OP's complaint
is about messenger service abuse, not site-specific
pop-up ads. Bruce's advice is correct, and you need to
get with the program before contradicting correct answers
with your ignorant drivel.