Windows XP Service Pack 2 - RC2 Issues

10 Comments

• Robert,
  
  
  
  it's absolutely normal for trillian to still connect even though there's been no answer to the firewall... The connection protocol for all IM services works by establishing an OUTGOING tcp connection, which the microsoft firewall, unlike zonealarms and friends, don't control at all. The prompt you get is for INCOMING or LISTENING tcp and udp endpoints on your machine, used when someone sends you somethng directly.
  
  
  
  I would agree with your second statement, although I would encourage you to fill a bug report.
  
  
  
  Cheers,
  
  
  
  Seb
  

• It's disappointing to me that the firewall is still a "leaky" firewall, that won't block outgoing attempts, focusing only on alerting you when an application wants to create listening sockets.
  
  
  
  However, I agree with you completely on the dialog text. It's probably too late to change it now, but the choices they provide and the information about each choice is certainly not clear from a quick glance. This may end up confusing more users than it helps.
  

• No, Robert, I don't agree. If it would block outgoing traffic as well, too many people will turn it off entirely. Outgoing is okay. It will not stop drones from getting their instructions from IRC, but it will stop exploits of listening ports...
  

• Don't ever forget one thing, windows is a platform, and microsoft is (even though it's not always very obvious) trying to preserve the ISV market. If the microsoft firewall was doing ingoing and outgoing, packet filtering, and per application rules, what would be left to zonealarm, norton and mcafee firewalls, etc?
  
  
  
  I think their choice is reasonable in term of protection (prevent unknown people talking to you and infecting you, while still letting you talk to others without problems), and preserve the ISV market by providing the hookups for other tools to do more (as they already do for that matter, but with added integration) if people want it.
  
  
  
  As for me, i'm perfectly fine with letting outgoing traffic goes, it would be a headache to authorize each new program that tries to go and talk to the internet for a normal user, and I would agree with Wolfgang, the user reaction to that will lead (especially as the firewall is turned on by default) to people completely disabling the firewall immediately. Not a good thing (TM). And without being paranoid, what if microsoft had done outgoing blocking, but let internet explorer be safe while not providing a configuration for mozilla and opera? That's right, conspiration theories all over the place once again.
  
  
  
  Nuff said, what Microsoft did with the firewall is not a one size fits all solution, but a "just enough to secure by default without killing our ISVs".
  

• I installed sp2 rc2 and my computer froze up I click on an application and it takes 3 to 4 min to open i open just the browser and it takes 2 min to execute. I have run anti virus checks and defragged the drive which i may add took 15 hours to do and still the same result. I think this rc2 blows. I looked for min system requirements and found only xp pro with sp1 what the hell does that mean. so I tried to uninstall the rc2 and now I get a prompt telling me viseo, trillian, word and most of my office 2003 suiet will need to be reinstalled as well as my nero and a few other programs. so now I need to just format the drive because who knows what else is effected or how it will run after. In my view they can keep sp2 rc2.
  

• It screwed my machine as well. I need to reformat tomorrow. Issues with SP2 seem to be rare, but when they come up, it completely screws a machine it seems. I'll be staying with SP1 for a while.
  

• I can't even install Office 2003. I am halfway into the installation and I get a MSIEC.exe needed to be closed.
  
  
  
  I installed it on another computer with even specs but it has SP1 and the install went fine without a hitch. So that might be another thing to look at.
  

• I have been experiencing issues with Nero causing a BAD_POOL_HEADER STOP 0x19 (0x20 ...) when attempting to load the 'data' burning module for both CDRs and DVDRs(i.e. data disk, audio disk) Vision and Recode both seem to work fine creating and burning video DVDs. Other then that I have not had many other major issues with SP2.
  
  
  
  For those having issues with apps, you should uninstall and wipe the registry of those apps prior to the installation of SP2. SP2 install should indicate upon installation the apps it may render unusable prior to installing. If not perform the uninstall and reg clean after SP2, then reinstall apps as normal. Keep in mind that SP2 will default alot of drivers you may have installed third party post SP1 install. These drivers will need to be reinstalled. In addition any major services disabled will also need to be disabled again after SP2 install. SP2 will reenable alot of services if previously disabled.
  
  
  
  Let me know if anyone else has had any errors with Nero like the one mentioned above. I cant seem to find any info on this at all; every site points to issues with Windows 2000 in reference to this perticular stop error (Note- no hardware or software was changed prior to SP2; per the STOP error, it indicates hard/software is the issue- yet it is only in reference to W2K, go figure)
  
  
  
  PRo-
  
  probisone@sbcglobal.net
  

• Maybe ya'll should wait until the official release!?
  
  
  
  That's what I'm doing.
  

• I spent 2+ hours d/l'ing and burning, only to find my damned machine bombing at an attempt to load explorer.exe! I will figure out something tonight, but it's a heck of a thing to wake up on your birthday to. I will keep all posted of my progress, and detailed error messages.
  
  
  
  To begin, here are some quick stats:
  
  * Dell Dimension 8300
  
  * 512M RAM, 80G HD (precious cargo)
  
  * Win XP SP2 (kinda)
  
  * Much software, but I think it's the Beta 2 .Net that's screwing me
  
  
  
  More to come ...
  
  Brent