You are well-known with the software applications that you run on you PC, but you may not be known with the dozens of programs running in the background on your computer. These programs, called services control tasks like event logging, spooling files to the printer, and networking. One of these services, the Messenger Service, can be observed by spammers.


The original goal of the Messenger Service was to permit system administrators to send a message to several or all of the users on a network. The message looks in a pop up window to warn the users. Messenger Service is not instant-messaging. It does not permit the users to reply.

each Windows editions install Messenger Service and turn it on by default. A program freely available from the Internet permits spammers to check the Messenger Service on hundreds of thousands of computers on the Web. Users receive pop up spam windows that are not created by the website they are meeting.

If your computer is on a network behind a firewall, or you have a firewall application installed on your computer, it can be organized to block access to the Messenger Service. Most firewalls are assembled by default to block access to the Messenger Service. If not, configure your firewall to block port 135, the port applied by Messenger Service.

Microsoft, in their unknowing of computer protection, likes to leave back doors to your computer open. But they lastly wised up and Windows XP Service Pack 2 turns off the Messenger Service. If you are operating Windows XP, your best bet would be to install Service Pack 2 to turn off the Messenger Service and close various other security holes.