Pop-up spam on your desktop

The Screen Savers did this last week, and there's a good story at their site as well: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3374542,00.html

Oh crap...well, copy that last bit on to the end of the link.

ya gotta weed through those pesky services, MS and their silly toys...

All the more reason why it's a good idea to go through your services and make sure you don't have stuff running you don't need.

Sounds like added incentive for people to get firewalls on their PCs.

sounds like a virus to me. Maybe we should alert the likes of mcaffe, and norton, panda, AVG, ect. I'm sure there's a privacy boundary being trod upon here isn't there?

Ah yes, for those who think it won't happen to them http://www.clan1234.com/bedlam/wtf.jpg This was what I woke up to this morning >

It's not a virus any more than being "pinged" is a virus. Antivirus programs don't monitor network ports, so they won't solve the problem. You need to have a firewall (or other method) that blocks access to TCP port 139.

I know, I've been getting them for about a week and a half now every couple hours. Unfortunately, most firewalls specifically do not block this from of messaging.

I know there's supposed to be a way to block it from the control panel of windows, does anyone know how to do this?

Zone Alarm blocks incoming NetBios messages. Most other firewalls should, but they may not be set to block that port.

Instructsion to turn it off in the XP/NT/200 control panel are at the bottom of the Screen Savers page. http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3374542,00.html

Dang it...same probolem that stark23x had. If you have problems with the previous link, try this one: http://makeashorterlink.com/?M4D454432

Thanks for the link.

Here's the procecure (for the NT kernel at least):

Stop the spam

Fortunately there is an easy way to protect yourself; you must turn off the messenger service from within XP/2K/NT. Remember, if you are behind a firewall/corporate network you are most likely safe (as long as port 139 is blocked). Always check with your system administrator before making any changes to your services.

To turn off the messenger service in XP:

1. Click on the Start button and open the control panel.
2. Open the Performance and Maintenance control panel and go to Administrative Tools.
3. Now double-click on Services, then scroll to Messenger.
4. Double-click Messenger and click Stop to stop the service.
5. Change the startup type to Disable (see an example).

Good thing the first thing I did when I installed XP was to disable all possible unwanted internet options, including this one. Nasty stuff.

bakerstreet stated: "ya gotta weed through those pesky services, MS and their silly toys..."

Ignorance at its worst. This is a valuable and usefull tool. I use it everyday in my work. Just because some idiot finds a horrible use for a valid tool doesn't mean MS or anyone else is to blame. If you're surfing the internet unprotected with services like this exposed (like most un-informed people do), you deserve to get popups...

Yeah, lets blame all the comanies for not taking our ignorance into account.

I agree and disagree, Orion. I agree that in today's society, the more one knows about *everything* the better protected you will be. However, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that everyone should know about *everything* to avoid being exploited. I drive a car, and I'm a pretty knowledgeable driver. But, generally speaking, I am just that: a driver. I can change my oil, do some repairs, etc, but I don't know the inner workings of an automatic transmission. Should I have to become a mechanic to avoid being ripped off by an auto repair service? Granted, it'll help protect me as a consumer, but it *shouldn't* be necessary. Likewise, computer users, shouldn't have to possess knowledge of every potential exploit to be safe from mass marketing scumbags.

This scheme really should be illegal. What happened to the old ways of viewing privacy as in, a man's home is his castle. Computers can be extremely personal and represent for many people their most private collection of thoughts, records and information. Any intrusion into your computer from the outside should be one that you authorized for it to be legal. The whole concept of "opt out" policies shows extreme contempt for privacy. You should only be asked to "opt in" not out.

I hope this scheme gets banned by some civil authority, it probably will, but I bet it won't be because they are protecting us from giving up our right to privacy. It will be shot down because it's an irritant that crosses over financial and political boundaries. When some legislators (mostly computer illiterates) get a few of these they'll be confused enough by them to want to stop them.

It doesn't matter what service or security hole is used to do something like this, The principal is wrong. It's time to reign-in the advertisers and reclaim our world from billboards, junk mail, spam and telephone and door to door soliciting. It's insulting to people's integrity and self esteem to be bombarded by marketing constantly. When it comes uninvited into your home it's time to claim some rights of sovereignty and demand that it stop.

The use of a network messaging service to put a commercial on your desktop is crossing over a line of common decency that should outrage everyone that owns a computer. It's a tactic that only slaves would be expected to endure, because only with slavery do you have a captive audience with no rights, no voice and no freedom of choice. It will be interesting to see how fast this strategy gets legislated out of existence.... or if it will...

Hmm, your description somehow reminds me of tv. Not sure if they'll do anything about it though. What I wonder is how these messages get triggered. Via email? Or just by being online!

crae - the difference is if you choose to watch a commercial program you are opting in to the commercials the TV station puts in with the programming. This strategy would be like an advertisier being allowed to take over the broadcast, putting their message in front of you while the program you're trying to watch continues in the background obscurred by the ad placed in front of it.

Since it uses port 139 I assume it works just by being online. It shouldn't need a browser or email client to do its thing. I can't imagine this will last very long, maybe only a few weeks before it's outlawed with some severe penalties for using it. It's just too outrageous...

How do you outlaw something that is worldwide?

I'm not sure Tarkus, but that doesn't stop the French from trying.

I know they outlaw the U.S. from using their airspace, but I don't know that they've ever stopped a U.S. spammer.

ignorance? lmao, think of it as ICQ without any of those annoying 'security and privacy' things. This is a holdover from the concept of 'business OS' that MS is abandoning, and yet imposing the responsibilty for administrating on home users.

MS includes easily-abusable 'services' and then turns them on by default when 99% of all users will never know they are on. Ignorance, to me, is the assumption that everyone is behind a corporate firewall...

To kill the messenger service for Windows 2K do the following:
1. click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type services.msc
4. Hit the Enter key.
5. Scroll down to messenger Service.
6. Right Click and select Properties.
7. Set Startup Type to either Disabled or Manual
8. Click OK.
9. Close Services

This will stop them for both XP & 2K, this will affect the ability to do net sends to computers on your network.

How to do net send it in an NT environment and connected to a domain(or in a workgroup):

1. open a command prompt (start/run/ type cmd).
2. type: net send (userid wo brackets) message.
3. it will pop up a message box on the target machine, with the message and your computername or userid.

check out the net command if you have a network it contains alot of different sub utilities that are pretty cool, you can use it to map to network shares, add printers, etc....

Tarkus, the French have gone after US companies that link to or sell Nazi products. It's illegal in their country and they've gone to court to force US companies to comply with the law.

I too have been a victim of this form of harrassment. I had one of these pop-up's the other day. Quite disturbing if you ask me. I would love to shove a timebomb up their a*s and see how they react to that. I understand that companies have to advertise, but if you ask me, I would not buy from a company that
1) Trashes a similar product.
2) Spams your mailbox
3) Spams your pop-ups with the Messenger Service