Just found a way to kill this form of spamming for good. Have you ever been flying along and "pop" "get your university diploma!"so annoying! more so in full screen mode.here's what works for me, use at your own risk of course.Click Start -> Setings -> Control Panel -> Admin. Tools -> ServicesScroll down and highlight "Messenger" (a single click).Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.Click the STOP button.Select Disable or Manual under the "Startup Type" menu selection (we recommend the manual setting).Click OK.No need to reboot - You are now blocking webpopup advertisements!hope this helps to keep your flights uninterrupted. :-)joe

This is the known fix for this issue--it's been published for about a year, but it's good to post a reminder from time to time.Messenger pop-ups are thought to have originated from Eastern Europe--someone found a way to exploit the Messenger service common to Windows NT/2000/XP. It created a bit of flak for many sites, including Avsim, since people would be browsing Avsim's site and they'd see a pop-up, thinking Avsim had "sold out" to that form of advertising. Messenger popups don't even know what site you're visiting, or if you're visiting a site at all. Unless you do what Joe describes or have a good firewall in place, there's always a chance you may see one, especially if you have an "Always on" web connection....-John

I found a way too. I setup the Win XP Internet Firewall and I am messenger free now. I kept getting them too and it interupted my flights which made fs2004 irratating and I didn't fly as much. Now I can fly without being interrupted by such trash.

I recommend disable :)There's no need for it except maybe (maybe...) on a LAN.A better way of course is to disable NETBIOS in your network connection you use for going on the internet.Not only does that stop messsenger abuse, it also kills a lot of DOS and trojan attacks.

Hi Jeroen,are there any disadvantages to disabling NETBIOS?Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

A better option would be to get a NAT router with a firewall. You can also enable Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP, but a hardware firewall is better. Of course, this assumes you are on broadband.Jim

This may have been known before, but thanks a lot for this post. I was becoming very frustrated with the pop ups. I've only had XP a few months and was unaware of a solution for this until I read your post.The worst part of it is that the most frequent pop up adds I get are from sites that claim they have a method for stopping pop ups. Cheap, very cheap...Joe

Joe, you may want to try Avant browser, it's really a shell for IE that add's some features, the two most important to me are tabbed browsering so no more windows appearing everywhere, and pop up blocking that works very well indeed.Trouble is some sites have caught on to a way around these blockers and are using flash adverts over/inside the normal webpages now.

The following web site has a good explanation of the Messenger popup problem. I have used their "Shoot The Messenger" program and it seems to work well. https://grc.com/

Thanks for the info. I'll look into that. In the mean time I haven't had a single pop up since I made the change recommended in the original post...Ahhh heaven...

If you want to rip it's guts out and 'uninstall' it here's a way. First, make sure you are logged on as Adminstrator. Stop and Disable the 'Messenger' Service, of course. Then run the following command in a command prompt. You can copy the command, and then Right-click with your mouse and select paste to paste it into the command prompt.rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection BLC.Remove 128 %SystemRoot%INFmsmsgs.infCheers,Jim

>Hi Jeroen,>>are there any disadvantages to disabling NETBIOS?>>Cheers,>>Gosta.>>http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg> >Hi Gosta,The disadvantage is if you are in a LAN and want to use file and printer sharing and the like between computers in the LAN. You can find reading on the internet about this by seraching for SMB, System Message Block. It's a networking protocol.Cheers,Jim

>The worst part of it is that the most frequent pop up adds I get are from sites that claim they have a method for stopping pop ups. Joe, I noticed that too! I got my XP computer in August and immediately noticed these annoying things. Would you believe it, but a very common popup was from a company advertising software to stop the popups. Unbelievably, they were charging fifty dollars for this service! After thinking about it I realised there HAD to be an option to turn the wretched things off. After a bit I found the setting in Windows and it was a huge relief! But I can't help thinking how many people were suckered into paying fifty dollars. They say there's one born every minute.... Best regards, Chris