Final Release of SP2 Discussion/FAQ's

[AOforever1]

Well, here it comes!
Microsoft's miraculous Service Pack 2!

Talk about your impressions on SP2 or any questions too.
The full package and download for admins will be available late August.
Users now can turn on automatic updates to start recieving the Windows Service Pack.

New Features:

• Windows Secerity Center
• IE Popup Blocker
• Improved Windows Firewall
• And more fixes...

Learn More About SP2...
Detailed Changes On SP2...

[cabbit]

Year, you can turn it on but you can also keep it off and listen for it in the news. I'm sure everyone will be talking about it.

Of course, I fully recommend everyone have auto updates enabled!

The only thing I find good about the SP2 is that it rolls all the previous updates into one, which is good as thre's a few very important updates on there.

The firwall is a good addition but shouldn't everyone have one anyways. I know, I know, pretty much no-one has one. A haredware firewall should be used too as it blocks lots of external attacks.

[AOforever1]

Originally Posted by cabbit

The only thing I find good about the SP2 is that it rolls all the previous updates into one, which is good as thre's a few very important updates on there.

That just reminds me, a friend of mine actually did a fresh install of WinXP and did SP2 on it immediately (skipping SP1), and it should work properly.

Appearently though, when he plugged in his jump drive, the USB 2 drivers did not work... so he uninstalled SP2 and did a SP1 update. Then the jump drive worked with USB 2.

It worked before when he had SP1 installed, then SP2, hence SP2 RC2 is still missing some updates for the roll up... but let's hope they will correct most problems in the final release...

Originally Posted by cabbit

The firwall is a good addition but shouldn't everyone have one anyways. I know, I know, pretty much no-one has one. A haredware firewall should be used too as it blocks lots of external attacks.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, most people would not invest in a hardware firewall unless they we're running servers.

[Keitaro]

I would recommend XP users to wait a while before dling SP2 just incase any problems arise from installing it.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by AOforever1

Correct me if I'm wrong but, most people would not invest in a hardware firewall unless they we're running servers.

Well, all the consumer Internet gateways serve as hardware firewalls as well, even though they're often not purchased explicitly for that functionality. In fact, I still think that's the easiest way to go for most people... having high-speed Internet plugged directly into your computer just seems like a bad idea to me. The need to have some sort of firewall can't be understated.

Tomorrow at work we're going to be focusing on SP2 testing, so we'll see how things go. (The RTM ISO image is available to MSDN subscribers, so that's how come we already have it.)

[Ending]

Sounds good, and maybe they haven't even packed it (again) with malicious "copy-protection" software.

...But I think I'll stick with my Win2k nevertheless.

[xargon]

Originally Posted by AOforever1

Correct me if I'm wrong but, most people would not invest in a hardware firewall unless they we're running servers.

well im sure a LOT of people have routers and those count as hardware firewalls too.
im not really a windows fan thats why i dont think i have even the SP1 but if SP2 looks promising i'll get it.

[AOforever1]

Originally Posted by Keitaro

I would recommend XP users to wait a while before dling SP2 just incase any problems arise from installing it.

ROFL! This is how bad SP2 is going to be isn't it xD

RC1 was screwing with my wireless network when I installed it btw.

[KeinikuSuki]

Originally Posted by AOforever1

ROFL! This is how bad SP2 is going to be isn't it xD

All my Windows XP partitions have SP2 RC2 installed on them right now. It seems to me this whole thread is missing the huge breakthrough with Service Pack 2. It doesnt have anything to do with a firewall or Windows Update, although they are nice features. It does have to do with ActiveX security changes.


As you can see, I visited www.gator.com (aka spyware central, so dont go there!) with Internet Explorer just to illustrate my point. No longer does ActiveX come automatically enabled. Instead, the new "Information Bar" allows you to selectively enable ActiveX when you need it. This bar also fights pop-ups, file downloads, and Java scripts.

Sure, this doesn't matter if you're like me and use Mozilla FireFox, but an estimated 94% of all Windows users use Internet Explorer. No longer will the general public be at the mercy of any website the stuble upon.

Other new and useful features of Service Pack 2 include improved wireless networking support and easier Firewall exception controls.

[Green²]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...2_wfintro.mspx
If you're running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Firewall is turned on by default. However, some computer manufacturers and network administrators might turn it off.

If that on by default holds true for the final release, then I would expect to hear a lot of users here complaining about the bittorrent yellow light and slow downloads.

[Ending]

No longer will the general public be at the mercy of any website the stuble upon.

For a while at least, then they find a new way. That 'general public' will always be at their "mercy."

A.K.A: "The dumb will always be they prey of the smart."

[AnimeOni]

I have four machines with SP2 running in my lab. Our software had some minor issues but overall, nothing major was broken. Our software broke since our developers took advantage on some "holes" in XP. Looks like our developers cannot take any more shortcuts

I think other software out there will be broken like BT (yellow all the time) but they should be able to work around this quickly. All i have to say, it's a nice fix for those "braindead" people out there who think that they do not need any Anti-virus and stuff.

Oh, Firefox and Opera will need the latest versions to run. Opera keeps on crashing on me and older Firefox has some security conflict issues. See their boards for more info.

The popup feature is a nice addition. It does a nice job but some pop-ups do appear but not as many as not having any anti-popup protection.
________
Vaporizer Reviews

[KeinikuSuki]

Originally Posted by Green²

If that on by default holds true for the final release, then I would expect to hear a lot of users here complaining about the bittorrent yellow light and slow downloads.

I just got the real SP2 (yeay MSDN), and it looks like the Firewall does in fact come on by default; however, this could have been because I already had it on. I guess I really don't know then.

Anyway, contrary to what you might think, I believe we will here fewer people complaining that their light stays yellow. Check it out:



This is what pops up when Azureus first runs. Obviously if regular BitTorrent was running, you'd get a pop up about BitTorrent instead of Java. The only flaw in this theory is the idiots who push "Keep Blocking" and have to come here trying to figure out how to configure it manually. Also, some people probably won't make the connection between Java and Azureus.

Originally Posted by Wirhe

For a while at least, then they find a new way. That 'general public' will always be at their "mercy."

While I agree that the "general public" will always be preyed upon, these new controls do represent a major step forward. Previously, the only real control over ActiveX was to either have them off or use the trusted zone method of Windows Server 2003. Most people didn't want to spend 800 USD on WinSer 2003, so it was either open the flood gates or completely disable the content. I'm sure we'd be surpised by statistics about how many idiots have unknowingly downloaded spyware and viruses from webpages. It's amazing that this exploit has lasted this long!

Originally Posted by AOforever1

Q: Will users on SP2 RCs be able to update to the final release?

A: Yes, the nondiscript "Service Pack 2" installed on top of my setup of SP2 RC2.

Spoiler:

[AOforever1]

I'd be a little more general than say activeX is the prime rib on SP2.
Microsoft wants to beef up security on XP generally, and I don't see how blocking ActiveX is a difficult task.

Another thing microsoft has been working on is the aspect of computer interfaces. MS is trying to simplify computer interfaces, make them user friendly and more of an experience than a tool.

Now let's just put it this way, there are ppl that have no clue and just take what's given to them on the screen, hence, the adware/spyware/popups/etc and their counters exsist. So let's expect a few of those yellow light compliants shall we?

Oh btw, about Firefox and ActiveX, if you goto www.msn.com on IE and FF, you should see some limitations FF has with ActiveX control with the msn headlines.

[Lefteris_D]

SP2 will only allow a maximum of 10 TCP/IP connections at any given time. That may cause some "My BT is slow" threads but there is a solution

Just google up for "tcpip.sys" and Service Pack 2 to find the patch.

Please note that this is supposed to be a security measure and patching the file to fix it is not supported by Microsoft.

[Lunas]

Originally Posted by AnimeOni

I have four machines with SP2 running in my lab. Our software had some minor issues but overall, nothing major was broken. Our software broke since our developers took advantage on some "holes" in XP. Looks like our developers cannot take any more shortcuts

I think other software out there will be broken like BT (yellow all the time) but they should be able to work around this quickly. All i have to say, it's a nice fix for those "braindead" people out there who think that they do not need any Anti-virus and stuff.

Oh, Firefox and Opera will need the latest versions to run. Opera keeps on crashing on me and older Firefox has some security conflict issues. See their boards for more info.

The popup feature is a nice addition. It does a nice job but some pop-ups do appear but not as many as not having any anti-popup protection.

been using sp2 for a long time now and i have had no problems with BT

[Green²]

Originally Posted by Lefteris_D

SP2 will only allow a maximum of 10 TCP/IP connections at any given time. That may cause some "My BT is slow" threads but there is a solution

Just google up for "tcpip.sys" and Service Pack 2 to find the patch.

Please note that this is supposed to be a security measure and patching the file to fix it is not supported by Microsoft.

As I understand, it seems to be about allowing a max established TCP connections of 10 half connections per second. Then anything over the limit will be placed into a queue for the next second opening of 10 connections. But I believe that this doesn't mean that there is a total of 10 active connections, but that the total may be much higher. Though I couldn't find what that limit is.

Example:

Program A calls for 25 connections.

First second = 10 connections
Second second = 10 connections
Third second = 5 connections

After three seconds, there should now be 25 connections simultaneously running. That is if the max running connections is at 25 or above.

What I do expect on bittorrent is that there should be a greater slowdown as one downloads multiple torrents at the same time.

[AnimeOni]

With SP2, i notice that it takes longer to establish connections (getting enough peers), but once all the peers are connected, I'm fine. D/L speed is a little slower using Azureus ~ 300kbps max (from max 320kbps) but it's still better than what I got when Azures was in the 1.xxx versions where I was capped at 220kbps. U/L is much slower. having full open, I can only U/L at 15kbps down from 25kbps.

Anyone see similar results?
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R1150Rt

[ato]

Over at slashdot, they just posted this link that describes a little bit about the connection handling and MSs reasons for implementing it. It might indeed cause the setup phase of a BT session to slow down iif you initiate connections to a lot of peers at the same time...

[AOforever1]

Hmm...I haven't really seen a significant difference in starting my connections with seeds/peers on BT, but I can see it.

Northing to fuss over....I think....