New sort of SPAM suddenly creating popups on my computer

Ronald Epstein · 06-25-2003, 08:15 AM

Started yesterday.

These blatant popup ads that advertise a POP-UP
stopper at BYEBYEADS.COM

Funny thing is, you know that BYBYEADS.COM is
sending these suckers out just to get you to buy
their program.

These popups are totally annoying. You need not
to have a browser open. A normal pop-up stopper
program (which I have running all the time) does
not stop it. You could have your desktop running
idle when all of a sudden...WHAM...this box appears.

Worse yet, you can't easily close the pop-up box.

I tried running PEST PATROL to remove whatever
was put on my computer, but it detected nothing.

Strange thing is, I can't remember downloading
and installing any program that would have put
this sort of annoying banner program in my computer.

Anyone experiencing this problem as of late?

Mike LS · 06-25-2003, 09:12 AM

Are they IE popups?

Joel Mack · 06-25-2003, 09:15 AM

Ron,

What OS are you running? It sounds like they're using the Windows "Messenger" service.

Go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and look for a service called "Messenger". Right-click on it and set it to disabled, and that should fix it.

That may not be it, but it's a place to start, and my only idea...

Todd Hochard · 06-25-2003, 09:19 AM

Something in the Windows Messenger (not the same as the Windows Instant Messenger program) Service, maybe? I had to disable this on my uncle's PC, running XP.

Here's how to get rid of it.

http://www.updatexp.com/messenger_service_spam.html

Todd

EDIT- I guess I type too slow.

Camp · 06-25-2003, 09:36 AM

I had two of them waiting for me this morning. I didn't want to click the "OK" buttons so I did the control-alt-delete thing to kill them.

Funny, the one time I have my router disconnected is the time I get this junk.

**HTF Ads**

JamesHl · 06-25-2003, 09:56 AM

Good old messenger spam... running a NAT firewall will get rid of this, as well as securing your system a lot better in general.

Ronald Epstein · 06-25-2003, 10:38 AM

Todd,

Your link did the trick.

Here was the problem....

I am having files uploaded to my computer via
FTP SERV-U.

In order to do that I had to open up my
firewall to allow another computer to access
my computer.

I am running Norton Internet Security, and was
hoping that would keep such attacks out -- but
apparently it did not.

Anyhow, I went to the site you mentioned and
got instructions on how to go into Windows XP
and turn off the MESSENGER function.

So far, the banners have disappeared.

These are awful banners. Not IE pop-ups mind you
(you don't have to run a browser to appear), but
full-size messages that randomly appear every
couple of minutes advertising a website to kill
such banners.

Be careful if you open up your router even for
a limited time.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Kimmo Jaskari · 06-25-2003, 11:35 AM

Yeah, those messenger popups are annoying. Still, they can't get past a firewall if it is properly set up, and you don't ever want to allow file and printer sharing etc through an existing firewall. If you do, you can get those nasty popups.

Basically, these are the same kinds of popups you can generate yourself by opening a command prompt window and entering: net send computername "whatever you want to say"

Useful for sysadmins in a corporate network to communicate with either a specific computer or a whole domain (ie, sending stuff like "the mail server will be down for a day" or whatever).

You can open up for Serv-U without letting the world in, though. Just open up for port 21 from the outside and set Serv-U up so it uses passive mode on a few ports, say 10000-10010, and permit those in the firewall as well. That's how I have my access set up through my D-Link router/firewall.

Todd Hochard · 06-26-2003, 08:07 AM

In my (limited) experience, I've never seen these messages get past the firewall that's included with WinXP. I think a lot of people forget to turn it on.

Todd

Kimmo Jaskari · 06-26-2003, 08:17 AM

Many people don't even have a firewall even though they are hooked up via DSL or cable 24/7. That's just begging for trouble, as well as causing trouble for the rest of us when their machines get used for denial of service attacks etc.

However, quite a few computer users just don't care to learn about security and firewalls. Sad, but true.

And of course sometimes stuff gets through even though you do have a firewall.

Many software firewalls are, IMHO, too simple. You can either permit access to a certain program or not, but can't limit what IP address can access it, etc. That's why I prefer Sygate Personal, you can both create advanced rules and limit IP number address access as well as the standard "allow-a-program-to-access-the-internet".