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Article:
Kill The Messenger (Service) by: Stephen Bucaro You are familiar with the software applications that you run on your computer, but you may not be familiar with the dozens of programs running in the background on your computer. These programs, called 'services' handle tasks like event logging, spooling files to the printer, and networking. One of these services, the Messenger Service, can be reconnoitered by spammers. The original purpose of the Messenger Service was to allow system administrators to send a message to some or all of the users on a network. The message appears in a popup window to alert the users. Messenger Service is not instant-messaging. It does not allow the users to respond. All Windows versions install Messenger Service and turn it on by default. A program freely available from the Internet allows spammers to control the Messenger Service on hundreds of thousands of computers on the Web. Users receive popup spam windows that are not generated by the website they are visiting. If your computer is on a network behind a firewall, or you have a firewall application installed on your computer, it can be configured to block access to the Messenger Service. Most firewalls are configured by default to block access to the Messenger Service. If not, configure your firewall to block port '135
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