XP SP2 Be careful !!

[Lori]

It amazes me that professional players such as you and MicroBob don't have broadband access - surely its an essential tool of the trade?


I do occasionally play on someone elses broadband, but the only difference is at Party where I can play four tables instead of two, as I don't play much at Party, it rarely makes much difference to me as long as I don't forget my 2 hour reconnect (Which is almost second nature now).

Lori

[thwang99]

Been running SP2 without problems. Though I'm able to deal with any issues that come up, nothing has come up except the occasional program trying to access internet or incoming connection or other security warnings when I try to run a program that I know is safe. Just click the accept button.

Not a shill for MS, though I do work in the software industry in various ways.

- Tony

[sbalzac]

I've upgraded 5 XP Pro PCs in the last week. No problems so far. If the firewall gives you problems, and it hasbn't for me (party only) then go to the security center within control panel and turn it off. Not too hard...

In my estimation (I do this kind of stuff for a living) SP2's added security is worth the potential problems it may cause. It patches numerous security holes and the pop-blocker for IE is quite good. (also blockes unsigned active X controls, which is a very good thing.

[GrannyMae]

if you don't see anything on the nightly news about widespread problems, then you can assume it works just fine in at least 99% of cases.

brilliant suggestion. don't know why i did not think of this. if it is the disaster that some think it has the potential to be, then it will certainly be covered on the news and in the forums.

ty

[shandrakor]

$35 is also too steep

Only because you're not thinking of your computer as just another appliance in your home. If your car, or your TV, or your fridge breaks, you have to pay someone to fix it. Just because software doesn't have a physical existence, people seem to forget that the "repair guy" still needs to get paid.


It says in the information regarding SP2 that multi player games will not work without making some changes that computer tards like myself will never understand.

Again, I can't make any promises about that...I don't actually do much multiplayer gaming. Since installing SP2, I have tested Party Poker, Empire, Paradise, Stars, Captain Cook's Casino, Casino On Net, City of Heroes (a massive multiplayer game), an IRC Filesharing Server and a bittorrent client, all without problem. This is not to say that certain other applications, or computers with a different hardware or software configuration than mine might not have problems.

What I find disturbing is that people in the industry, like yourself WANT me to install it, I mean what do you get out of it other than the phonecall payments when the new crop of inevitable viruses come forth.

I always get a good laugh from people who think that tech support makes money for the company. Support is a loss industry, people. But, lets set that aside and address the real issue here - you seem to have a misunderstanding about what SP2 actually is.

Under normal circumstances, a Service Pack for a Microsoft product is simply a collection of the already-release security patches for the program since whatever the last SP was shipped out. Mostly, they exist to allow companies to keep their machines all standardized, as well as letting MS run a second round of compatability testing with all the fixes bundled together.

XP SP2 is different. In January of 2003, the Blaster virus hit the internet. The public outcry against such a widespread, destructive virus lead to a few changes at Microsoft. First of all, Microsoft introduced free techincal support for virus-related issues. More relevently, the decision was made to entirely halt development on the new version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn) and focus the entire Windows Development Team's efforts on adapting the security measures they'd written for Longhorn onto XP.

I hope I can impress upon you how significant a decision that was. Let me phrase it a different way. Microsft deliberately delayed a fresh revenue stream by at least a year in order to work on security issues with the product that everybody already owned.

SP2 certainly has some aspects to it that can be aggrivating. It has been made difficult at best to disable the firewall, or the automatic updates. The reason for this? Because if you were infected by Blaster, or Sasser, it was your fault.

One more time. If you were infected by Blaster or Sasser, it was your fault.

If you'd been running the Windows Firewall, infection would have been difficult, and the virus would not have been able to use your computer to spread itself. If you'd been using Automatic Updates, you never would have been infected to begin with. The security hole that Blaster gets in through was publicly patched at least 6 months prior to the virus being released. The security hole that Sasser got in through was patched 6 weeks before the virus was released.

The solution? Don't let people tard themselves into catching virii. Is it going to solve all the problems? Hell no. Is it going to cause other problems down the line? Quite possibly. But it's a really big first step.

That is why I, as a memeber of the industry, want you to install it. Because of SP2, there's a much smaller chance that I'll have to ever again work 2 weeks of 14-hour days answering damned virus calls because people don't have the technical knowhow to keep their systems secure. I don't blame you for it, I just support taking the decisions out of your hands.

[Lori]

Thanks for your reply, I'll read it again later when I'm calmer because it all seemed reasonable until this:

One more time. If you were infected by Blaster or Sasser, it was your fault.

I was lucky enough to avoid these two viruses, but to blame ME or whoever got them for the failings of the software is utterly beyond my capacity to comprehend.

The software was written in such a manner that these things were possible, I have never recieved a warning, or email from Microsoft to tell me that these things were possible, nothing was included in the product information that this would happen and _I_ am not qualified to stop such things.
To blame _ME_ the person who buys the product because I'm not capable of writing my own is a disgrace.

That aside, I still genuinely appreciate the rest of your responses as they have been very helpful.

Lori

[shandrakor]

If the firewall gives you problems, and it hasbn't for me (party only) then go to the security center within control panel and turn it off. Not too hard...

Bad sbalzac...bad, wicked, naughty sbalzac.

If you are having problems with the windows firewall disabling an application, look around. Check support forums for the program, check the microsoft support forums. Hell, check here, and see if someone else can do the research for you. Completely disabling the firewall is the LAST thing you should do. LAST, LAST, LAST.

And if you don't understand why, then go back and read what I just wrote. If you still don't get it, ask me, and I'll find another way of saying it.

FIREWALL IS YOUR FRIEND!

the pop-blocker for IE is quite good.

Oh, I'd forgotten to mention the pop-up blocker. How very lax of me. If there's one tradeoff big enough to make up for ANY inconvenience, it's that IE now comes with a built-in popup blocker. I LOVE it. You will LOVE it. It works WONDERFULLY. It makes me so HAPPY.

Okay, I'm done now.

[Lori]

check the microsoft support forums

Based on my experiences today, this is a no-go.

About 10% of the posts are about how to use the new firewall, and the only responses are from MVP's telling blonde jokes.

Lori

[CountDuckula]

[ QUOTE ]
FIREWALL IS YOUR FRIEND!

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, at least in the generic sense, but I have ZoneAlarm Pro. Will I run into any problems when I apply SP2?

-Mike

[moondogg]

I don't want to get too involved here, but here goes anyway...

ALL software has bugs. ALL software has holes. Any OS can be cracked, and several different viruses can developed for ANY platform. All systems have to be updated at some point, especially when there is a concerted effort by the hacker community to find and exploit any possible hole.

Yes, MS released software that had bugs and security flaws. So did Netscape, Firefox, Macintosh, Linux, et al. Those other systems have not been exploited because there's no reason to. Most people use Windows, and most developers know and are comfortable with Windows. The hackers know how to program with Windows, they have been doing it for years. I could write several viruses for Windows, not because it is less secure, but because I have been programming for Windows for years and know it's quirks. I wouldn't know where to start writing a Linux virus, simply because I have never programmed for the Linux platform. Just about every hacker is focused primarily on Windows. It wouldn't be any "fun" to write a virus for Linux, because very few people use it. If Linux achieves the widespread acceptance that is pursuing, you will see a LOT of Linux viruses in the future.

Again, yes MS's software had bugs and security flaws. However, they have actively been fixing them. In the specific cases of the Blaster and Sasser worms, they problem had been fixed, period. You chose not to apply the fix.

Some may say that MS should not release software until ALL of the bugs have been fixed. This is absolutely impossible. No software company in history has EVER done this. Bugs are a part of the business. You try to minimize them before a release, and when they crop up after the release, you fix them. MS fixed them, but you ignored the fix.

Essentially, this is the same as not updating your virus protection software for a year, and then claiming that it's the McAfee's fault you got a virus.

Basically, people are saying "Fix the bugs! But don't make me have to install the fix!" and "Make it more secure! But get rid of these damn security features!".

P.S. You are welcome to call my a MS shill. I prefer the term "loyalist" though.