Windows/NetBIOS pop-up Spam:

bofus writes "This article from Wired News presents a new way to deliver unsolicited advertising content - the MS Windows Messenger service. It appears that the client software hasn't been widely distributed yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before a free clone is circulating. This method could become the delivery method of choice for all kinds of unsolicited junk, given the number of unsecured PCs out there. On the flip side, if you run a relatively secured machine and have some sort of firewall, this probably shouldn't concern you."

Comments

a clone of messenger ?

[overlord]

There are clones of messenger even for linux.
Try for example gaim, or Amsn.
Both of them work great.

Overlord

Do many people even use MS messenger?

[Uttles]

I use trillian, and most people I know use AOL. A few use Yahoo. I've not met many people who use MS messenger. This seems like a non-issue

Re:Do many people even use MS messenger?

[niola]

This is NOT MSN Messenger. It is MS messenger - a service built into windows. It basically is like the wall daemon in UNIX. Someone can send a broadcast message on the network and all other hosts get it. What has happened here is that some lowlife spammer has discovered that they can use this feature to annoy people. To make matters worse, they are doing it over port 135 as opposed to the standard 139 NetBIOS port which most people have blocked.

Re:Funny...

[Qrlx]

You might want to read this KB article. It tells you how to make that annoying "You're running low on disk space" message go away.

In brief, you need to regedit and add this:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\P ol icies\Explorer NoLowDiskSpaceChecks
REG_DWORD 1

Re:is there an echo in the room

[jon787]

Let's see now, my serious comments get labled trolls and my stupid comments make 5. What is wrong with that?

Mod parent up, please

[billstewart]

It's a good article.

One nitpick is that you don't need products like WebWasher if you're running Mozilla - you can set it not to "Open Unrequested Windows", and 95% of that stuff just vanishes.

Re:Concern me?

[geekd]

I didn't saw MS *users* are a plague. They mostly just don't know any better.

I love the little moderation war that's going on my original post:

Moderation Totals: Flamebait=1, Troll=2, Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Overrated=2, Total=9.

Re:is there an echo in the room

[jon787]

well atleast that comment got modded down (along with the original post)

Of course how can I be redundant if I pointed that out first? Overrated maybe, but redundant?