How can I prevent messenger popups? 

They are small grey text-only windows offering to sell me something
(like Pop-Up Killer!) to prevent what they are doing! Extortion! The
only option is to close the window. The text is not selectable and
there are no active links in the pop-up.

I definately do not want to reward their extortion by buying a
solution from any of them.

I have Norton Internet Security 2003 which stops regualar popups, but
not these.

I have Windows XP Pro with all the lastest software, patches, service
packs, etc.

Thanks,
Gary

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Clarification of Question by gjcmg-ga on 28 Aug 2003 09:52 PDT

It would be nice if there were a way for me to block unwanted
"Messenger Service" ads using Norton Internet Security 2003.
For example from a MS Knowledge Base article
 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330904

To resolve this issue, install or turn on a firewall that blocks
inbound NetBIOS and UDP broadcast traffic.

Can Norton Internet Security 2003 do that? How?

gjcmg-ga...

While I don't own a copy of Norton Internet Security 2003,
I have researched the User's Guide, and it would seem that
there are options provided which would allow you to block
inbound NetBIOS and UDP traffic for Windows Messenger, 
though you may have to experiment a bit with the options
in order to see exactly how. I'll do my best to guide you,
based on my experience with other firewalls and on the 
User's Guide for NIS 2003.

You can download a .pdf file containing the User's Guide
from Symantec's tech support site on this page:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/nis/nis_2003_info_man.html

or, here is the direct link:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/norton_internet_security/manuals/nis2003.pdf


To illustrate the steps without referring to the pdf file,
I have located another page from Symantec's site, which,
though meant to accomplish a specific task which is different
than yours, provides images of the dialogue boxes you will
encounter:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nip.nsf/pfdocs/2001042015020836?Open


What you need to do is to manually add a firewall rule:

From the User's Guide:
"While Norton Internet Security automatically creates most of
 the firewall rules that you need, you may want to add specific
 rules. Only experienced Internet users should create their own
 firewall rules. There are three sets of firewall rules you can
 customize:
 1 General Rules
 1 Trojan Horse Rules
 1 Program Rules"

Since you want to block Windows Messenger from receiving data
on specific ports, it seems to me you will want to create a
program rule:

"To add a Program Rule
 1 Open Norton Internet Security.
 2 In the Security Center, double-click Personal Firewall.
 3 In the Personal Firewall window, on the Program Control tab,
   in the list of programs, click Add.
 4 In the Select a program window, select a program’s executable
   file. Executable file names typically end in .exe.
 5 In the Internet Access Control alert, on the 'What do you want
   to do' menu, select 'Create a firewall rule'.
 6 Follow the on-screen instructions."

You will need to know the name of the executable file for the
Messenger program. You can identify this by right-clicking on
the shortcut for Windows Messenger and selecting 'properties'.
This will show you the location of the program, under 'target'.

You will then be guided to create a firewall rule:

In the Program Rules window, click Add.

Click next, and then select:

Block Internet Access
Prevents communication of this type from taking place.

Click next, and then select:

Connections from other computers
The rule applies to inbound connections from another
computer to your computer.

Click next, and then select:

UDP 
The rule applies to UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
communications.

Click next, and then select:

All types of communications (all ports)
The rule applies to communications using any port.

This should effectively block Messenger from receiving 
incoming data via any UDP ports, in accordance with the
Microsoft guidance you cited.


You will then need to create a second Firewall Rule.
You may be able to add another Firewall Rule to the 
now exising Program Rule, or you may need to create
a second Program Rule for Messenger, and create
another Firewall Rule for that Program Rule.

Then...

In the Program Rules window, click Add.

Click next, and then select:

Block Internet Access
Prevents communication of this type from taking place.

Click next, and then select:

Connections from other computers
The rule applies to inbound connections from another
computer to your computer.

Click next, and then select:

TCP 
The rule applies to TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
communications.

Click next, and then select:

Only the types of communications or ports listed below
The rule applies to the ports listed. You can add ports to,
or remove ports from, the list.

Add the NetBIOS ports 137, 138 and 139.

This should effectively block Messenger from receiving 
incoming data via the NetBIOS ports, in accordance with the
Microsoft guidlines.


You may need to reboot for these rules to take effect.
This should do the trick, however, as I said, I don't own
a copy of NIS 2003, so you may find that, in actuality,
you need to take a different approach in order to accomplish
the task, such as creating a general rule vs a program rule.
In theory, the route I've suggested should work, but if you
experience a glitch with the suggested process, and can't
figure your way past it, don't hesitate to come back here
and ask for help.

Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.

sublime1-ga


searches done, via Google:

"norton internet security 2003" "block UDP OR netbios"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22norton+internet+security+2003%22+%22block+UDP+OR+netbios%22

Messenger is a service intended for comunication over a network. It is
widely used by printers to send you a confirmation message whe a page
is printed.

The Messenger service (Not related to the chat application) in windows
is automatically started with the operating system.

To stop the service and change it to manual mode, on Windows XP Pro, 
1. Click the "Start" button 
2. Then click "Run..."
3. In the "Run..." box, type the following text: "services.msc /s"
(without the quotation marks)

A window listing all the services on your computer appears.

4. Look for "Messenger" on the "Name" column, double click on it, and
change the "Startup type" to Manual and stop the service.

Regards

I have NIS 2003 and tried the above on my XP Pro system to no avail. 
This is not accurate.  The Messenger service is independant of Instant
Messenger, hence blocking TCP and UDP traffic on Instant Messenger has
no bearing on the pop ups.

I found the way to stop these pop-ups, utilizing the Messenger service
not to be confuseed with Instant Messenger, is to go under
Administration in Control Panel. Selct Services, then right select
properties on Messenger. Stop the service and specify either manual or
disable for the start up scroll.

So far so good.  After 1 hour online no pop-ups.  Using the
recommendation for NIS 2003 does not seem to have any affect on these
pop-ups which use Messenger rather than Instant Messenger.

To clarify...

The Microsoft Knowledge Base Article cited by gjcmg-ga in the question
is referring to the Windows Messenger Service, not the MSN Messenger
chat program:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330904

While it does mention the option of turning off the Messenger Service,
as is noted to work in your comments, it also states:

 "If the Messenger service is stopped, messages from the Alerter
 service (notifications from your antivirus software, for example)
 are not transmitted. If the Messenger service is turned off,
 any services that explicitly depend on the Messenger service do
 not start, and an error message is logged in the System event
 log. For this reason, Microsoft recommends that you install a
 firewall and configure it to block NetBIOS and RPC traffic
 instead of turning off the Messenger service."

It then proceeds to detail which ports are used by the Messenger
Service, and suggests blocking these with whatever firewall
program you are using:

"The Messenger service uses UDP ports 135, 137, and 138;
 TCP ports 135, 139, and 445; and an ephemeral (that is,
 short-lived) port number greater than 1024."

By blocking all UDP ports and the specified TCP ports, this
should prevent the Messenger Service from receiving any
messages from the internet, while allowing communication
with the local network for the purposes of printing, etc.

I did confuse the ports in my answer, saying that the TCP
ports to block were 137, 138 and 139. In fact, 135, 137,
and 138 are the UDP ports to be blocked, but since all 
UDP ports are to be blocked, they don't need to be specified.
The TCP ports to be blocked are actually 135, 139, and 445,
as well as an ephemeral port number greater than 1024, which
might take some experimentation to discover and block. This
is all clearly spelled out in the MS article, and I apologize
for any confusion caused by my error.

sublime1-ga

I tried pilates recommendation and I did exactly as directed and I've
not had a pop up all day!!!  I've tried all that other crap and it
didn't work.  Problem is, what if you don't have XP?  I have friends
running 98 who can't figure it out.  Anyway... just wanted to thank
you immensely.  I had pop ups coming up every 30 minutes like
clockwork.  What a relief!!!