Messenger Service

On a 7 machine network running Norton Internet Security, we haven't had any problems with Messenger Service popups until recently.

I can't understand it. I can't do a "net-send" to any other machine because of the firewall. The "ShieldsUp" site shows all the machines as completely stealth. But the popups are still getting through.

I finally decided to just shut the messenger service down on all the machines, but with our setup it really shouldn't be necessary.

So my question is, HOW are these popups getting though when the firewall should be stopping them?

One thought, have you ran Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search & Destroy on any of the ones getting the popups?

I had one XP machine in our network that was getting them and it had adware/spyware on it. The others were clean and weren't getting the popups...

FWIW, we are looking into using MSN Messenger as our inter-office only message setup instead of Winpop/Net Send. We have some IT guys working on it and hopefully we can be using it soon. It will look much better and be handier than Net Send...

Thanks HAN, I hadn't thought of that. I'll run SpyBot on the machines today.

Today I ran SpyBot S&D on the 4 problem machines. The only thing found in common was a DSO Exploit. Otherwise all were fairly clean with just the usual Alexa and WMP Client ID warnings.

I'm not sure that a DSO Exploit can cause Messenger popups.

So, on my machine I reenabled Messenger Service and didn't recieve a popup for the rest of the day. I'll wait another day or two and see what happens.

I don't know either. The only machines in our office with the Win Messenger Service off are the ones we didn't want Net Send/Winpop messages showing up on. The ones that are "on" have never showed any web content at all (except for the spyware special. ;) )

Hopefully, the DSO issue is the culprit. Using any kind of instant messenger app in an office is very very handy...

Got a Messenger popup today on my machine, ran SpyBot and the machine was clean. So back to the drawing board.

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Originally posted by DVOM
So my question is, HOW are these popups getting though when the firewall should be stopping them?

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Don't know, but I definitely support your decision to turn Messenger Service off and switch to an instant messenger. ;)

I hadn't been aware that spyware could cause Messenger Service popups.

DVOM: You didn't mention why you use the Net Send Messenger but in our office, we used it for tracking where the staff members are currently located. Along with informing others who was out for vacation, sick leave, etc.

Instead of going with MSN Messenger, we went with a program called Touch N Go. http://www.touchngo.com/tng/index.htm This shows where everyone is at a glance. It's not the best for anything that needs detailed explanations but for tracking staff, it's great. The folks in our office liked it immediately. Price-wise, the 20 user package is $99.95 US. All you need to run it is a shared folder on a machine that everyone's PC can map a drive to.

Thought you might like to know...