At 4/30/2003 11:36 PM, Philippe J Beaulieu wrote:

I just bought a new computer with WinXP. I'm on an always
on cable connection and can often find strange billboard
type messages and sometimes they are downright insulting.
One I get, The title reads "Skinny person to fat person"
want to lose weight etc etc How to I stop this from
happening?
========================================================

This is the new Spamming method becoming popular with the
growing use of XP.  Windows XP turns on the Messenger
Service by default when XP is loaded.  This allows an
Administrator to send "pop-up" message boxes to computers
running XP.  You can turn off this "service" by going to
Start - programs - Administrative Tools - Services and
right clicking on Messenger.  Then choose Properties and
the Stop button will be on the panel.  This has nothing to
do with MS Messenger or AOL Messenger.

Some people have generated programs that will scan for
PC's connected to Internet and will send messages to all
XP/2K machines attached with the Messenger Service
running.

Doug

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