My girlfriend got a really wierd error message...

[Vyse]

What on earth does this mean?

[Shao Feng-Li]

oo, i think we get those same messages! they pop up through everything! even games! heh, most of them are plain nasty... I think it's some sort of big scam. you might get one that says to pay up, and they'll go away. it'll come in a few different messages. Dont risk reading them though, you might get sick, considering, i got you you got. they look the same nevertheless

[Straylight]

What on earth does this mean?

This is spam. It reaches you via an exploit of a built in messanger "feature" in Windows. This one is especially cheeky.. LOL

Downloading the following will get rid of the popups:

http://grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm

[Shao Feng-Li]

oh good, ill have to get that at home

[Retten]

I would also recomende you get a firwall since some of your ports are open!

[Mithrandir]

Meh. Don't worry about the firewall software. Get a hardware device if you get anything. But yep, that's a pop-up spam deal. Try firefox, and ask it to tell you when you want pop-ups. Some sites require them, and use them for usefull things. So if you need pop-ups, you better have something like it to help you out.

[shooraijin]

No, no -- it *is* a spam popup, but it's coming through the Windows Messenger service -- it's not JavaScript (note: Windows Messager != MSN Messenger -- they are separate things). SL's URL is the best place to start plugging this problem.

[ShiroiHikari]

You can disable Messenger yourself as well.

Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

Scroll down til you see Messenger. Double-click it. When it brings up the box, go to the "Startup Type" drop-down box, and select "Disabled". The pop-ups should stop. :]

[Straylight]

You can disable Messenger yourself as well.

Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

Scroll down til you see Messenger. Double-click it. When it brings up the box, go to the "Startup Type" drop-down box, and select "Disabled". The pop-ups should stop. :]

That's even better than downloading the program thingy.