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Abuse of the Messenger Service

The Messenger Service is built in to all versions and variants of Windows NT, which includes NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It is not included in the Windows 9x line (95, 98 and ME).

It should not be confused with the Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger application which is a separate product.

The Messenger service is used to allow machines and users on a network to receive alert messages. It is a one way service, you can receive messages, but cannot reply. You can send messages if you wish. The messages stay on your screen until acknowledged.

Unfortunately, the Messenger service has started to be abused by the same people that send you spam messages.
There is a likelihood that you will get messages advertising everything from the sex sites to expensive premium rate numbers in Germany that you cannot even call from outside of that country!

The messages are entirely harmless. They cannot send a link to you that you can click on, or send files to your machine. However they can get annoying or could send messages that you don't want your children to see.

How can you protect yourself?

There are two ways that you can protect yourself.

1. Use a firewall. Most firewalls, whether software or hardware type will stop these kinds of messages coming in to your machine as part of their standard settings. If you are on a broadband connection you should probably have a firewall anyway.
2. Stop the Messenger Service. As the only people that need this service are users on a corporate network those of you at home have no need for it. Therefore you can stop the service from starting, meaning that you don't receive the messages. It is not advisable that you stop the service if you are on a corporate network as your network team may use it to communicate with you.

Disabling the Messenger Service

You can stop the messenger service and also disable it completely. You need to be logged on with admin rights in order to make this change.

1. Start Computer Management Console (either RIGHT click on My Computer and choose "Manage", Choose Computer Management from the Administrative Tools menu on the Start menu (if enabled) or From the Administrative Tools Control Panel applet.
2. Expand the "Services and Applications" tree.
3. Click on "Services" to bring up the list of services installed on your machine.
4. Find the Service called "Messenger".
5. Right click on it and choose "Stop" to stop the service.
6. Once the service has been stopped, right click on it again and choose properties.
7. Change the "Startup Type" from Automatic to either "Manual" (which allows you or an application to start it again but it isn't started when the machine is rebooted) or "Disabled" (which means the service will not start and cannot be started until the option is changed back to "Automatic" or "Manual").
8. Close the computer management console.