amherst: geeky for 150 years, geeky AND CO-ED for 20!

[cimorene]

great. random windows pop up from the windows messenger service saying stuff like 'message from a;lsdjf;ajf to amherst.edu: test.' and you have to click OK to make it go away. then again, 'hi.' then again, 'sorry for that, just testing a vulnerability in windows.' then again, 'spammers are starting to take advantage of it, i'd say it's a vulnerability.' great. now how did you do it? and next week: will the geeks be able to fix the network so that it's no longer possible? stay tuned.

Comments

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Don't mind me, just popping by as a friend of a friend... but another friend of mine told me about this pop-up spam annoyance. It's not a network thing, it's a Windows thing, specifically the "net send" service that's a part of the OS.

To disable the "net send" Messenger service on Windows XP:
1. Go to the Start menu in the lower left corner of your screen. Select Programs: Administrative Tools: Services. A Services window will appear.
2. Select the Messenger service in the right-hand list of local services by double-clicking on it. A Messenger Properties window will appear.
3. In the General tab, set the Messenger service's Start Type to Disabled using the pull-down list of Start Types.
4. Also in the General tab, click the Stop button in the Service Status section. Your computer will stop the service if it is currently running.
5. Click OK. The Messenger Properties window will disappear.
6. Click the File: Exit tab in the Services window, and it will disappear.

To disable Windows Instant Messenger on Windows XP (which is unassociated with the pop-up spam but also might be something people want to turn off on their work computers):
1. Go to Start: Programs: Windows Messenger. A Windows Messenger window will pop up.
2. Click the Tools tab, and select Options. Another window will pop up.
3. Click the Preferences tab, and make sure the following two boxes are unchecked:
* Run this program when Windows starts
* Allow this program to run in the background
4. Click OK, then the File: Close tab in the Windows Messenger window.
5. Doublecheck that you do not have a little icon in the bottom right hand side of your screen that looks like two little people's heads. If you do, right-click on it and select Close.

I don't know about other flavors of Windows, but they should be similar.

Best of luck with the pop-up spam...
-- Elke