Firewall Help/Messanger Service Boxes

I downloaded the Sygate Firewall and I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly.

In the bottom right corner about every 2 minutes I get, essentially, pop up boxes continually telling me that, among others "IP SessionsStats", "Yahoo:yum.exe", "NT Kernal & System" et. al. is being blocked or do I want to let it through. Do I? What are these...'things?' that are trying to get through?

Is there a way to let the Firewall just operate in the background sans the annoyance...seems like a bit of a paradox that it's as annoying as the pop-ups.

Also, I posted a similar question in the spyware forum, what is solution to these "Messenger Service" boxes?

Thanks.

Jason

 

From my experience, the firewall has to be taught what to let through and what to stop, (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) as opposed to other firewalls that recognize a set of system and 3rd party programs and processes and let them pass automatically without asking you. You need to be sure what to allow and what to block, and that's why I don't use this firewall, although it's considered one of the best out there.

As for the messenger service, right click on My Computer and click Manage. There go to Services and Applications, and then to Services. Locate the Messenger service in the list, double click on it, and in the drop-down menu select Disabled as a startup type. If it's currently running, stop it, clicking on the corresponding button. This service has nothing to do with the Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger, so you can have it disabled. No popups will appear as long as it stays disabled.

 

cycro...

Thank you so much for the messanger service box help.

The firewall is a lot more than I expected and I just fear that i'm not allowing stuff in that needs to get in. Plus i woke up this morning and it says it's being scanned by a 3rd party with an accompanying ISP address.

any input from others would be great.

thanks.

jason

 

thanks again.

halo, i have zero computer intelligence so it's all news to me.

I've actually clicked the 'do not ask me again' box and they keep coming, repeating, the same ones (see my initial message).

also, i did the disable Messenger service and the pop-ups are still coming. not as frequent, but in the 2 hours from my doing it, about 3-5 have come up. any other solutions? i'm running win2000 with SP-4 on it, so i don't know if that update helps with this problem.

jason