PCTech Forums

Recently I was setting up a laptop on my home network. I set up a windows messenger account on the laptop then added my login name as a contact from my main pc. The add was successful but when I looked at the name on the laptop it was something other than my nick. Then the person messaged me using my account. It was in Spanish. The user nick that came up was extremely long and wasn’t even close to mine. I'm positive that the info I entered was correct as I did it several times after deleting the contact from the laptop and it came up the same every time. What can I do to prevent this without getting rid of the program or changing my account info?

Normally I tell users to disable Windows Messenger but there are some reasons and services that need it to run.
You can block external messages using a firewall. When using an external or internal firewall you should block inbound NetBIOS and UDP protocol broadcast traffic. When setting up an internal firewall, such as Zone Alarm, you may need to create exceptions for your own subnet, or individual machines that you want to share data with. WinXp users can enable the built-in Internet Connection Firewall (ICF).(Although this can mess with network folder sharing) You need WinXp Service Pack 1 (SP1) to block the messenger traffic. For more info on the ICF and messenger blocking, read the Microsoft Knowledge base article .
Be aware that the newest Windows Service pack disables Windows Messenger.
brad