Saw something interesting

[MDM4AU 332]

I keep getting these pop-ups and such and I e-mailed Google to ask why the pop-up blocker wasn't stopping this. They sent me a message that was quite helpful. But, there was something that caught my eye in the reply. I have pasted the edited message below. See for yourself:

Hi ,

Thank you for your note. There are several reasons why you might still

receive pop-up ads while using the Google Toolbar. Here are the three most

common causes of this problem...

...However, the Google Toolbar's Popup Blocker will not block these messages,

as they could contain valuable information. You can choose to disable the

Messenger Service however by following the steps outlined at:

http://www.auburn.edu/oit/security/messengerService.html

We hope this information has been helpful. If we can assist you further,

please let us know.

Regards,

The Google Team

Thought that was interesting.

[autigger 0]

hmmmm interesting......what kind of popups are they???? I know Auburn now has a messenger service that is part of groupwise and tigermail.....

[MDM4AU 332]

They called it a parasite of some sort that I may have gotten by downloading a number of different types of software or programs. I am not sure as of yet what it may be. They named Kazaa and something else but I haven't downloaded either if the one's they named. My wife got an MP3 player for her birthday and it is probably something to do with that.

[stoic-one 1,544]

The “Messenger Service” is an integral part of the windows operating system. It is "intended" to be used as a mechanism to provide popup alerts and administrative notices....i.e. on a corporate network it might be used to alert users to log off for server maintenance, or inform an administrator errors occurring on a server or users machine.

It is a background service and should not be confused with chat style "messenger" services such as MSN Messenger, or AIM, or other such "programs"......

I leave it disabled on my machine, as it is more of a security hole over the internet, than a benefit......

[MDM4AU 332]

The pop-ups more than likely were had something to do with Internet Explorer because I switched to Mozilla this afternoon and I haven't had a problem since.

Go Figure!

[TitanTiger 20,483]

So, how are you liking Mozilla Firebird, MDM?

[Tiger Al 0]

OK, I checked out the website...what's so great about Mozilla? What's not so great?

[MDM4AU 332]

Everything seems to work great so far. I seem to have character/font/curser issues when I type on AUNation. The curser is basically on-top of the last letter/charcter typed. Don't know if that has anything to do with it but I never had that prob before. I don't have it with my work PC that uses IE. Also, the scroll wheel on my mouse doesn't work the way it used to when I am on-line. Overall though, it's pretty good and I don't have those STINKING pop-ups! I just downloaded Mozilla, I haven't downloaded the Firefox 0.8 yet.

I am impressed with the way it copied everything over. I'm not missing a thing. I was afraid it would be a mess trying to find my "Favorites" and things of that nature.

I will give you another update later when I have had more time to work with it.

[TitanTiger 20,483]

Advantages to Mozilla Firebird over IE:

Smaller download

More secure, mainly because unlike IE, it's not so integrated into the operating system plus it's open source so security holes are found quicker and fixed.

It has always seemed to load pages faster than IE.

Better interface (downloadable skins allow a lot of customization)

Better control over cookies.

Pop up blocking (although IE recently implemented this feature...Mozilla has had it for at least 3 years now).

[MDM4AU 332]

It did seem to download pages faster, though clicking on from my desktop takes longer than with IE.

[MDM4AU 332]

OK I need help!! Since I switched to Mozilla, I no longer have my Windows Media Player when trying to listen to the "Live Audio" for Auburn Baseball. It advised me to get the "plug-in." The thing is, It says MOzilla doesn't know what to do with it. My options are to "open with" and I can browse all my files or I can "save to disk." I saved to disk in program files. But I still can't get the Live Audio.

WHAT DO I DO?

If I run into this later with other things, what do I do? I am not real happy right now and I know that most of it simply has to do with my lack of knowledge about these things.