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Display Name (?):

Messenger

Short Name (?):

Messenger

Executable (?):

svchost.exe

Library (?):

msgsvc.dll

Depends On (?):

Workstation, Plug and Play, Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Supports (?):

None.

Description (?):

Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. This service is not related to Windows Messenger. If this service is stopped, Alerter messages will not be transmitted. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

OS (?):

NT4 Workstation, 2000 Professional, XP Home/Professional, Vista Home/Business, NT4 Server, 2000 Server, Server 2003, Vista Server

Startup (?):

Default	Home	Workstation	Server	Minimal	Tweaked	Automatic
Automatic	Disabled	Automatic	Automatic	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled

Explanation (?):

The messenger service is used in sending network messages through ports UDP 135/137 and TCP 135/139/445. These messages can either be manually sent or through a system event by the alerter service. If you disable this service then you will not be able to send nor receive net messages and as such the NET SEND and NET NAME command functions will no longer work. Do note that the messenger service is in no way related to the Windows MSN Messenger program and disabling/enabling this function will in no way affect its behavior. This service is intended to be used by a network administrator to do such things as warn of a server restarting or to forward systems messages on a server to the rest of a network. This service by default enabled and is often taken advantage of by companies and is used to popup messages on your desktop selling such things as college degrees and herbal viagra. It is highly recommended you disable this service unless you are actively using it.

This service is very interesting to me, but as of yet I have been unable to find any information on how to configure it. Such options such as filtering the incoming addresses (without setting up firewall rules) would make this service very useful. If you have any ideas how to modify the settings of this service (registry entries for example) then please email me and tell me so I can post that information here.