SOMEBODY HELP!!!! I'm not even sure I'm in the right forum so I appologise if I'm not.. Does any one know how to get rid of those damn pop-ups you get once every 10-20 secs that say something like " MESSENGER SERVICE" and then go on to say something like " Go to our website and remove pop-ups for good just PAY: 24.95" or some crap like that. I just got a fricken nother one!!!! Does anyone know how to stop this please help. It obviously only happens when I'm on line and I have AOL.

Easiest way, download and run Steve Gibson's utility 'Shoot the Messenger'. http://grc.com/freepopular.htm

Or better, yet, DISABLE the WINDOWS MESSENGER SERVICE in WIN XP SERVICES

that will get rid of some but i use PopUp killer. you can single out particular popups and there is an intelligent mode that anticipates popups (although it sometimes kills the ones you do want) Makes a nice explosion sound (very gratifying) with each kill and logs its activity. many usual sites like howstuffworks.com throws up lots of them. it sounds like a skirmish.

Easy, go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services. Then in the long list, look for something called "Messenger". Right-click on it and select properties and on the white bar where it says "Automatic", select "Disabled". That's it!

Just in case there is any confusion, there is this program called the messenger service in XP. It has nothing to do with MSN Instant Messenger. It is for admins to send notices to users on a network. However no one uses it this way because there is no authentication involved in it. Hence the results you experience. The easiest way to rid yourself of this annoyance is to turn the messeneger service off (disable). This is not a popup like those you get when surfing the Internet. No need to download any programs, just turn the service off.

Also, a lot of Firewalls like Zone Alarm PRO have pop up blocker which works very good, and also it has a setting to block all ADS on a page as it's rendered. I use it and it is very handy. Also, the Web browser MOZILLA has pop up blocker built-into it, so that's an option too, but just DISABLE MESSENGER in SERVICES and if you are not using a firewall, buy ZONE ALARM PRO and use it also to block pop ups, pop unders, pop across, whatever as it is well worth your money, about $40. Am note sure if the Zone Alarm FREE version has this capability.