How can I stop Pop Up Ads without paying?

I keep getting pop ups from apparently a Messenger Service that tell me if I pay x amount of dollars I can stop these. They all have different web addresses. It says they are caused by a loophole in Windows XP and I can stop them by subscribing.
I have Norton Internet Security but the ad blocker does not stop them. I have AOL8, the ad blocker on that doesn't stop them either. I have a spyware scanner installed. I can't stop them. HELP
Margaret Harrison, August 2003


done
spam-slammer .com
it works for me and you can switch off if you want to use your messenger service

copaul, October 2005
I am running a pentium 4 with winxp on my computer.
My browser is Internet Explorer version 6.
If you have version 6 of Internet Explorer, bring Explorer up on your computer, click on Tools, scroll down to Pop Up Blocker. A small window will open up reading "Turn off pop up blocker." Click on this and the window will close. If you click on tools again and check you will find that Turn off pop up blocker has changed to Turn on pop up blocker, and your pop ups will be turned off. It works for me.

gus, October 2005
Yahoo also has a popup blocker but you need to load it from their sight.
Use Mozilla Firefox it has a built in stopper, just switch in on.

Mr Kipper, September 2005
Hi there,
Goto www.download.com and download 'pop up stopper'. It is an excellent little program, free and works a treat. (Works fine on XP Home, XP Pro and 2000, that I definately know of.)
Here is the link -
http://www.download.com/Pop-Up-Stopper-Free-Edition/3000-7786_4-10361823.html?tag=lst-0-1
(Copy and Paste)
Cheers,
VAL

Valerie Taylor, February 2005
Thanks for the help. I disabled the messanger service and all messanger pop-ups have stopped!

Tom N, June 2004
Disabling the messenger service in Windows will not stop popups, only messenger service messages! Use the Google Toolbar as above. It's FREE.

g6zru, June 2004
Get the Google toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com/
It's great and has a built-in popup stopper! :o)

gigajosh, January 2004
You should be able to get rid of this by disabling the messanger service in Windows. (It's actually a feature designed to allow network administrators to monitor servers and send out service messages over networks, but as the internet is basically one big network, spammers have started exploiting it).
Go to Control panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.
There should be a Messanger entry in the list which you can disable.
Hope this helps!

Liz Waller, August 2003