Net Send - Domain

I'm thinking about turning on the messenger service for all the computers on in the domain, any thoughts on this?

I remember way back when people had problems with spam coming through it, but I'm thinking that since we're all behind a firewall it wouldn't come through from the outside. Is this right?

Also I have three different locations all on the same domain, each with it's own DC, and connected through ipsec tunnels. Do you think a general messege sent like - net send * "Yes I know the exchange server is down so stop calling me, I'll have it back up in a couple of minutes" would be broadcast to all computers at all locations or just the computers connected to my location?


Thanks.

Do other users on your domain have admin rights? If so, they could send messages as well. As long as you are using a private IP address range, Internet spam should not be a problem with a firewall set up properly.

Note: Vista and Server 2008 do not support this service - a replacement is used. It is set up and working on a domain I use, but they have a large cyber security staff and budget.

Some worthwhile links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_service

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330904

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/168893

https://www.grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm

THanks for the response. We're still on 2003 Standard and SBS. Not a huge company here, just me working on a few servers with few dozen users.

I turned it on for everyone today. Almost everyone is setup as a domain user with the cmd line disabled. Hopefully next time I can use it to reduce the number of phones calls. :)