Can anyone help with pop-up problem?

[conservativefromGa]

Recently I have been getting these messengers pop-ups. Not the usual pop-ups you get from Drudge or other websites. They just come up out of the blue. They usually invite me to a "teen webcam" or something like that. The only options are to click the X button or OK button. What are these and how can I stop them. I have a dailup cannection by the way. Thanks..

[D-fendr]

Sounds like the old spam-through-messenger service exploit.

I forget how exactly, but you need to turn off a network service to stop it - firwall would help to I believe, but with a dialup, likely just the OS change.

Someone else will come along and give you the details..

[Support Free Republic]

There's A Better Way To Beat The Media Clymers (And You Don't Have To Skate)!
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[shattered]

You could try running adaware and spybot programs. Both are available on the web for free download. If you have anything on your computer drive causing the popups one of these should find it.

Good luck!

[conservativefromGa]

finally figured out how to disable it! thanks for your response. I also use spy-bot which is a great tool.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Windows Messenger Spam Elimination Freeware by Steve Gibson,  Gibson Research Corporation.
Page last modified: Oct 06, 2003 at 14:32	Developed by Steve Gibson

In addition to being a security risk, Windows'
"Messenger Service" is being used to "Spam"
Windows users across the Internet.

This 22 kbyte "Shoot The Messenger" utility gives users
immediate control over the Windows Messenger service.

Shoot The Messenger

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Nothing seems to be working for me! I can't even download the free adaware or popupstopper........ I'm about to pull my hair out here!

[LooneyTick]

Popup Stopper.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> Popup Stopper.

The issue here wasn't your classic popups, but about advertising sent via that nasty "Windows Messaging" applet that Micro$oft put in the current version of Windows.

It is enabled by default, though a third party firewall seems to block access to it (the WinXP firewall, also enabled by default, doesn't seem to). I have only dialup here, but after upgrading from Win98 here, I went online to download new Norton & Zone Alarm updates and I wasn't on five minutes before junk advertising messages started popping up on my screen, mostly invitations to visit shopping websites fairly tame things like that - but unwanted and annoying.

The little download from the GRC website will kill it (though it can be disabled farly easy through the computer management applet - when you find it).

As for classic internet popup ads, I haven't seen a perfect blocker. I am a political forum junkie and I participate here on FR and various others, particularly some on Yahoo Groups. The Yahoo Groups have a lot of popups. For safety, I use two browsers. I use IE most of the time, for straightforward browsing in places like FR, but I use Mozilla Firebird for websites where I'm likely to encounter popups and other trash (there's quite an underworld out there - more than just popups - all kinds of scripts and other little nasties that'll do everything from changing your homepage to emptying your wallet). Mozilla is easily configureable to eliminate popups & things like that, and none have ever gotten through it.

Dave in Eugene