Is Windows XP Service Pack 2 worth it?

[Legalaid5]

I've been reading numerous posts everywhere about the pros and cons of installing the Service Pack 2. Bottom line, is it really a CRITICAL update? Will it affect my ability to use filesharing programs like Kazaa and Piolet?

I plan on living with Service Pack 1, unless I am convinced otherwise, so what do you recommend?

Thanks.

[rainbowdemon]

I'm staying with SP1 too.

[rebirth]

I've heard SP2 limits your connections to the internet, throttling, and sometimes blocking, p2p access to the net. Get it if you plan on never sharing again. (until a underground hotfix is released)

[Legalaid5]

F... that. I'm sticking with SP1.

[DainBramaged]

I've heard SP2 limits your connections to the internet, throttling, and sometimes blocking, p2p access to the net. Get it if you plan on never sharing again. (until a underground hotfix is released)
LOL. Do a little research first.

SP2 only limits connections to inactive hosts. Yup, people who are gone. You don't want to waste time trying to connect to clients who aren't there anyway. I will assume here that people are using a firewall other than XP's built-in, cuz that's a joke.

In any case, your claims are largely unfounded.

[thongsai]

u have to install sp2 if u wanna play games that require directx 9.0c. for some reason the regular installer dont work and only sp2 will give it to u. i already patched the sp2 and my p2p is still good

[rebirth]

LOL. Do a little research first.

SP2 only limits connections to inactive hosts. Yup, people who are gone. You don't want to waste time trying to connect to clients who aren't there anyway. I will assume here that people are using a firewall other than XP's built-in, cuz that's a joke.

In any case, your claims are largely unfounded.

P.S. Do a little reading b4 you bash my post, bitch. I said "I've heard." Not that I follow what I've heard as gospel. Thanks. Now I've HEARD your shit.

[Christoph]

Sp2 is great!my Xp is faster now and I never had problems with p2p!if you want to get the hotfix,downlaod www.xp-antispy.org,there you can disabel connection limit AND do not forget that SP1 did that too!!!!!!*lol

[ROMANTICGUY50]

I'm staying with SP1 too.
So are We! In one word NO! I am staying with SP1.All the bad eports that I have heard about SP2. All the driver Updates and the like that are required for the update's aren't worth it in my opinion I can pay 30.00bucks to get it done. With the restrictions that come with in in regrard to connections. I had it on my computer and I lost all connectivity to the internet. The same thing happened to a friend of mine as well. His LAN connection failed after a week. He had an E Machine and their website offers NO support to the upgrade. I called HP and they were not much help either. They told me to call SP2 support cause they could not help me either. So until they get it all togeather which will prob be a long time I will as my fqamily will will stay with SP1 I had to reformat my hard drive. No one bothered to tell us about the updates required before the upgrade to XSP2 It comes and it downloaded automaticly. Plus with all the comments I have heard about SP2 in the negative I will stay with SP1 for now.

REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER--FILESHARING IS AT STAKE

[davec8]

From what I've read about SP2 the majority of the patches in it are for the firewall. If you have a different firewall like myself(Norton) and have the windows firewall turned off there probably isn't much point. Chrisoph's link doesn't work. Thongsai's link has nothing to do SP2 from what I can see, it's a gaming site. If you do DL SP2 and want to open more connections you can find the fix here http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=tools

[Vampmon]

XP SP2 works fine :)

[Crazy Horse]

I am of the addage "if it ain't broke..don't fix it". I have my holes plugged by other means and am quite comfortable with my settings the way they are. I am going with Romantic Guy on this one and am going to leave well enough alone.

[FrozenShadow23]

It kills nmap, I don't like that. I'm not using SP2.

[CompuGeek]

</tin foil hat off>

1. You can live without SP2.

2. SP2 can cause problems if it isn't applied to a fresh/clean installation of Windows. The best way to get SP2 is to slipstream (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp) it into a Windows CD and do a clean install.

3. The connection limit is a feature, not a bug:

The TCP/IP stack now limits the number of simultaneous incomplete outbound TCP connection attempts. After the limit has been reached, subsequent connection attempts are put in a queue and will be resolved at a fixed rate. Under normal operation, when applications are connecting to available hosts at valid IP addresses, no connection rate-limiting will occur. When it does occur, a new event, with ID 4226, appears in the system’s event log.

Why is this change important? What threats does it help mitigate?

This change helps to limit the speed at which malicious programs, such as viruses and worms, spread to uninfected computers. Malicious programs often attempt to reach uninfected computers by opening simultaneous connections to random IP addresses. Most of these random addresses result in a failed connection, so a burst of such activity on a computer is a signal that it may have been infected by a malicious program.

Basically, Bit Torrent et al. usually work just fine under SP2.
*IF* you have unusually slow downloads, then install the patch others have mentioned.

4. If you decide you don't want SP2, you should sill encourage everyone who has problems with popups, spyware, and viruses to install it.

:fire

[Christoph]

www.xp-antispy.org to patch your connection problem after SP2

[nasrules]

I use it and have absolutely no problems with it.

[Matt865]

I use it and have absolutely no problems with it.

Ditto, I have it on two vastly differnt computers (an old AMD-K7 - 500 MHz and a brand new AMD-64 3200+) and haven't experienced a single problem with SP2. :ass

[ROMANTICGUY50]

Ditto, I have it on two vastly differnt computers (an old AMD-K7 - 500 MHz and a brand new AMD-64 3200+) and haven't experienced a single problem with SP2. :ass
You are lucky I tried it and had a major problem on all three of our computers

[Jelsoft]

I would say wait.

If you already have an antivirus and firewall you don't have to install SP2 right away.

Given the range of problems with the SP2 installation, I would wait until Microsoft comes up with a patch for these problems.

[bobhss]

I've got 3 computers running XP.
Computer #1 - Athlon 1.3Ghz, 640 RAM, has SP2 via a slipstreamed XP CD (fresh install)
Computer #2 - Duron 1.0Ghz, 512 RAM, has SP1 via a slipstreamed XP CD
Computer #3 - PIII 450Mhz, 256 RAM, has SP2 applied from the Service Pack file


Computer Number 1 works fine, no problems with SP2. Computer Number 2 does my Bittorrent load, so I haven't upgraded yet (would prefer to do a fresh install). Computer Number 3 has had no problems with SP2.

Overall, I'd say if you use Internet Explorer (or your parents who don't know any better) as your primary browser then yes, by all means apply SP2. The pop up blocking they added works great and the automatically blocking all Active X components the first time they come up is kinda nice (it keeps stupid things from getting installed on your/your parents computer). On Computer Number 1 I've nearly disabled all the stuff that SP2 added(firewall, automatic updates, Security Center), so there's not much left. What's left hasn't affected me.

[DainBramaged]

P.S. Do a little reading b4 you bash my post, bitch. I said "I've heard." Not that I follow what I've heard as gospel. Thanks. Now I've HEARD your shit.
Holy shit, chill.

I did think about that when I posted. Seems you did follow it as gospel though, as the "never sharing again" comment indicates. But whatever, I wasn't really mashing your post. The internet is horrible for stuff like that.

Anyway, to address the issue, you can wait on SP2 but if you don't foresee any problems, I would go ahead and install it. Lots of security fixes and changes under the hood.

[eivioolla]

Just today I read a comment from someone that after installing SP2 he had been experiencing occasional crashes... I've browsed the list of changes in SP2 and imo they are either outright harmful, plain unnecessary or things you can manually change yourself. I didn't see one feature that would seem necessary in any way.

[IshareManyFilez]

I'll never install another microsoft update untill most of the bad news goes away. Im perfectly happy with my computer now.

[Bent_Metal]

I would say wait.
i agree with Jelsoft , iam waiting too.
i mean i just had a huge problem with my motherboard and i cant afford any more problems my comps fine now anyway so i'll wait until i can install sp2 with all the fixes.

does anyone have a link or links where they state the problems with sp2 at the moment?

:black Bent Metal :black

[cjules13]

I've heard SP2 limits your connections to the internet, throttling, and sometimes blocking, p2p access to the net. Get it if you plan on never sharing again. (until a underground hotfix is released)
yeah this has been proven false... some people got their undies in a bunch - and even released a underground hotfix, but you don't need it.

[Bent_Metal]

o so then could it be said that some of the things going around about sp2 are just stories


:black Bent Metal :black

[cjules13]

some of the things.... some true, some not true, overall I heard from most people and friends that SP2 is no big deal.

I'm going to install it cleanly during my next full OS reinstall.

[Bent_Metal]

sounds like a plan cjules13.

is it not a good idea to install it straight from the windows update site?

:black Bent Metal :black

[Bent_Metal]

2. SP2 can cause problems if it isn't applied to a fresh/clean installation of Windows. The best way to get SP2 is to slipstream (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp) it into a Windows CD and do a clean install.
lol i thought i read the answer somewhere lol


:black Bent Metal :black

[IshareManyFilez]

Before you install I would check out this site.
http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/43798/Windows_43798.html

[Bent_Metal]

hey

thanks for that link IshareManyFilez, i read it and it doesnt make me want to install SP2.

i browsed a bit on that site and found this;


Microsoft Publishes First Windows XP SP2 Patch
More than a month and a half after completing Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft has released the first patch that fixes a problem with the OS. The patch fixes a performance problem with Virtual Private Network (VPN), a feature that lets telecommuters and other mobile workers securely connect to their workplaces.

"This update helps resolve an issue on computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2," a note on Microsoft's Web site says. "Programs that connect to IP addresses in the loopback address range may not work as expected, and you may receive an error message indicating you cannot establish a connection. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer."

To download the patch, visit the Microsoft Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=17d997d2-5034-4bbb-b74d-ad8430a1f7c8&DisplayLang=en). Note that the company is now instituting an interesting new validation check before letting customers download the patch. Apparently, you must be running a correct and activated type of Windows (both version and language) to get the patch.

In related news, Microsoft is apparently concerned that only a small fraction of XP users have upgraded to SP2, so the company is accelerating SP2 distribution through Automatic Updates. To date, only 20 million XP users have downloaded the release. Microsoft hopes to ship SP2 to 100 million XP users by October 18, the company says. It will also accelerate the SP2 release of various languages; to date, Microsoft has shipped SP2 in just 16 of the 25 languages the company will eventually support.
http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/44014/Windows_44014.html

interesting dont u think ?

:black Bent Metal :black