"messenger service" popup in rct2

Recently, strange popups have been coming up when I am playing rct2. They come up on the format as of an error with your computer. I don't believe they have anything to do with my computer, but I do have a cable connection. They are extremely annoying, and bring up such advertisements as pornography, free stuff, or a program to stop them. But the catch is that you have to pay for it. Does anyone experience this or can anyone help me?

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I lost my hat on Poison Ivy. How pathetic.

Hasnt happened to me. Maybe you should close internet programs if theyre open(ie internet explorer minimized while playing) Just a thought.

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Mike T.
Fly with the man of steel in 2003!

I think what your refering to is the recently discovered way to exploit the network message function in Windows. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with your browser and it gets through firewalls - it is harmless though. I have heard that there is a way to disable it, but I'm not exactly sure how. Perhaps you can do a search or someone on here more knowledgable can explain.

Jim

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My K'Nex Coasters
Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Hi-Striker's Revenge

Its called the messenger "Service" in windows. Go to Control Panel->Admin Tools->Services and Its named Messenger. Right click and change startup type to disabled.

The directions are from Windows 2000 Server so they should work with 2k and XP.
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Webmaster Digital-Ignorance.com

Thank you D-I, I appreciate an answer quicker than a day.

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I lost my hat on Poison Ivy. How pathetic.

yeah thanks dude... i too have been getting those occasionally and was wondering what the hell they were.

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"It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone"

Actually no it doesn't get through firewalls. I used to get them every few hours then i got Zone alarm and haven't got them since.

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Six Flags Fiesta Texas Guide;
www.sfftnet.com

you can also get to it by going to Start>>Run and typing msconfig. From there you click on the Services tab and uncheck the Messenger box.

If you keep this service enabled and you have a firewall you will not recieve the messages, unless the messages are being sent from a computer thats on your network. These messages are being sent by going into the command prompt window and typing:

net send ip address "message here"

If you do recieve these messages the IP address of the person who sent it is displayed. report the IP to your ISP and they'll make a note of it.

btw - more then half of those service's do not need to be running on your computer and actually slow down your systems overall performance. i hardly have any checked and have noticed a great increase in performance ;)

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John
Albany Entertainment
http://albany.n3.net
Great Escape Online Guide Coming Soon!
*** This post was edited by CalvinJ23 2/9/2003 8:23:54 PM ***

It's a known Microsoft problem.

Their only solution is this: 330904
It happens only with Windows 2000 or XP. It's annoying, but having the XP firewall turned on fixes it for me (although I occassionally use Norton as well).

Blame Microsoft for making yet another faulty product.

It's not a faulty product. This is a feature. And a useful one in many cases. If you're connected to the internet without a firewall, then you're being grossly insecure. That can't be blamed on Microsoft.

Practice safe browsing. Use a firewall. They're free, so there's no excuse not to.

Thanks,

I wasn't having the "meesenger service" problem, but I had not been able to make an FTP connection in WinXP. I configured McAfee to enable the FTP ports, but did not realize that WinXP had its own firewall system. Short if it is I can now FTP.

Geez, if MS is not going to mention these features, they could at least popup a dialog box when you attempt to FTP that you may have to change some settings.

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David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville