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Windows XP SP2 and Nav Software
Just a word about my experieces with XP SP2. I've had occasion to
perform several upgrades so far on my own and customer systems. The installed nav software was CAPN Voyager 6.1.3, Maptech Ocean Navigator 5.04, OziExplorer 3.95.3e, and several releases of my own software (cpRepeater). So far, I have no problems to report. The new, somewhat more effective Windows firewall initially blocks network traffic from cpRepeater in networking mode, as it should. It only takes a single mouse click the first time you start cpRepeater to unblock its network traffic. Anybody that has ever used an effective software firewall like ZoneAlarm will instantly recognize the process. For more information about SP2 , check out: http://support.microsoft.com/default...r=windowsxpsp2 Briefly, SP2 is a significant upgrade to the security of WindowsXP. It's like a flak jacket - it doesn't make you absolutely bullet proof, but it stops a lot of the small caliber stuff. :-) There are other features, but I regard security as the compelling one. Most of the security issues addressed by SP2 will have already been handled by the expert user with add-on firewalls, third party email packages, and a replacement browser like Mozilla Firefox (highly recommended! I switched a few months ago and I find it to be superior in every way. YMMV). For a naked XP system with an internet connection, SP2 is a very important upgrade, but it is not trivial. You should definitely read *all* the information at the above link before upgrading, but my personal opinion is that you should upgrade when it is convenient. Backup your system first! If I happen to uncover any problems with nav software and SP2, I'll post it here, but the original distirbutors of the software are the authoritative source. Glen __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
"Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in
message ... . . . Briefly, SP2 is a significant upgrade to the security of WindowsXP. It's like a flak jacket - it doesn't make you absolutely bullet proof, but it stops a lot of the small caliber stuff. :-) There are other features, but I regard security as the compelling one. Most of the security issues addressed by SP2 will have already been handled by the expert user with add-on firewalls, third party email packages, and a replacement browser like Mozilla Firefox (highly recommended! I switched a few months ago and I find it to be superior in every way. YMMV). For a naked XP system with an internet connection, SP2 is a very important upgrade, but it is not trivial. You should definitely read *all* the information at the above link before upgrading, but my personal opinion is that you should upgrade when it is convenient. Backup your system first! There is a list of over 200 applications, including quite a few of M$ themselves, that stop running or show severe problems after updating to SP2! Meindert |
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 22:49:39 +0200, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote: There is a list of over 200 applications, including quite a few of M$ themselves, that stop running or show severe problems after updating to SP2! That's why I said to read up first. The apps are listed in the link I provided. But most of those apps stop working because of the firewall, as they should. The fix is simple, tell the firewall to let them work. A few are more serious. As I said, it's not a trivial upgrade. Read the docs first. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
Actually SP2 already has major security problems. Specifically, SP2
contains a feature that allows the an attacker to turn off your firewall but spoof the Windows Security Center to report that all is well and that the firewall is still active when in fact it has been disabled and your system has been compromised. To quote eWeek.com, "it may not be a security hole but rather a crater." Don't take my word for it. Have a look he http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1639456,00.asp or he http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1639276,00.asp I would agree with you that the best option is to purchase a firewall and block off all unneed ports. Microsoft has a terrible security track record and from all indications, SP2 is going to continue the tradition. Glen "Wiley" Wilson wrote: Just a word about my experieces with XP SP2. I've had occasion to perform several upgrades so far on my own and customer systems. The installed nav software was CAPN Voyager 6.1.3, Maptech Ocean Navigator 5.04, OziExplorer 3.95.3e, and several releases of my own software (cpRepeater). So far, I have no problems to report. The new, somewhat more effective Windows firewall initially blocks network traffic from cpRepeater in networking mode, as it should. It only takes a single mouse click the first time you start cpRepeater to unblock its network traffic. Anybody that has ever used an effective software firewall like ZoneAlarm will instantly recognize the process. For more information about SP2 , check out: http://support.microsoft.com/default...r=windowsxpsp2 Briefly, SP2 is a significant upgrade to the security of WindowsXP. It's like a flak jacket - it doesn't make you absolutely bullet proof, but it stops a lot of the small caliber stuff. :-) There are other features, but I regard security as the compelling one. Most of the security issues addressed by SP2 will have already been handled by the expert user with add-on firewalls, third party email packages, and a replacement browser like Mozilla Firefox (highly recommended! I switched a few months ago and I find it to be superior in every way. YMMV). For a naked XP system with an internet connection, SP2 is a very important upgrade, but it is not trivial. You should definitely read *all* the information at the above link before upgrading, but my personal opinion is that you should upgrade when it is convenient. Backup your system first! If I happen to uncover any problems with nav software and SP2, I'll post it here, but the original distirbutors of the software are the authoritative source. Glen __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 19:52:30 -0400, Lisa Collins
wrote: Actually SP2 already has major security problems. Specifically, SP2 contains a feature that allows the an attacker to turn off your firewall but spoof the Windows Security Center to report that all is well and that the firewall is still active when in fact it has been disabled and your system has been compromised. To quote eWeek.com, "it may not be a security hole but rather a crater." Don't take my word for it. Have a look he http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1639456,00.asp or he http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1639276,00.asp I would agree with you that the best option is to purchase a firewall and block off all unneed ports. Microsoft has a terrible security track record and from all indications, SP2 is going to continue the tradition. Thanks for posting that. I was already aware of it, but it's good info, if a bit hysterical (not you, the eweek article). Yup, SP2 has security problems. So will SP3. Windows is a fundamentally unsecure platform from the architecture to the implementation and will remain so for the near future. Even the new improved firewall is not so hot compared to freely available and free third party software. But SP2 is an improvement over the naked XP system I referenced. In my mind this particular potential exploit is serious, but not a deal breaker. To use it, you have to get an executable onto the users system in the first place. Windows being what it is, you can do just about anything once you get an executable on the system. SP2 offers some protection against that happening in the first place. The last paragraph of the eveek article you cite says: "Do we think that end users should upgrade? Yes, Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a must do, especially for end users. However, we would recommend users not take the WSC as gospel, If you use an antivirus, or 3rd party firewall, look at their status panels as a sanity check. Keep your Antivirus, windows, firewall updates current, and most of all, be very careful of what you run on your system. " They actually are higher on this thing than I am. I agree with you that a first class hardware/software firewall is a better way to go. Getting away from Outlook and IE is even better. I'm not sure how to mandate that, though. Just to be clear to everyone, I don't have a horse in this race. I think Windows sucks. But I know that anyone with autoupdate on will be on SP2 soon. The almost universal recommendation in the press is to install it, so I think it's a fact of life. My only real purpose was to try out some programs r.b.e. users care about and let them know how it works. I should have stuck with that and left my editorial opinions for another thread. My bad. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
"Lisa Collins" wrote in message
... Actually SP2 already has major security problems. Specifically, SP2 contains a feature that allows the an attacker to turn off your firewall but spoof the Windows Security Center to report that all is well and that the firewall is still active when in fact it has been disabled and your system has been compromised. Why doesn't this surprise me...... Meindert |
"Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in
message ... But SP2 is an improvement over the naked XP system I referenced. The naked XP, without SP1 was even more crap. What do you think XP stands for? Windows eXPerimental..... :-) Meindert |
On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 07:20:00 +0200, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote: "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... But SP2 is an improvement over the naked XP system I referenced. The naked XP, without SP1 was even more crap. What do you think XP stands for? Windows eXPerimental..... :-) Meindert Yeah. By naked, I really meant systems without a solid (i.e. non-Microsoft) firewall and up to date anti-virus package. Which doesn't make what you say untrue. I have to say though, as Windows sytems go, my personal experience has been that XP is head and shoulders above the rest as far as stability goes. I'm almost happy with it, on that score. It's still a pig with a clunky interface, though. As for virus susceptibility, take a linux system, chmod 777 everything, and set the default creation permissions likewise. Just for fun, have everyone run as root full time. That's your basic Windows architecture, right? Then spend the rest of your life putting band-aids on the severed limbs that result. Great fun. And we haven't even touched Windows networking yet... __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
In article ,
"Meindert Sprang" wrote: "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... But SP2 is an improvement over the naked XP system I referenced. The naked XP, without SP1 was even more crap. What do you think XP stands for? Windows eXPerimental..... :-) Meindert What does Windows XP stand for??? Windows Xtra Pain |
I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook
Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. -- Keith __ A day without sunshine is like, well, night. "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... Just a word about my experieces with XP SP2. I've had occasion to perform several upgrades so far on my own and customer systems. The installed nav software was CAPN Voyager 6.1.3, Maptech Ocean Navigator 5.04, OziExplorer 3.95.3e, and several releases of my own software (cpRepeater). So far, I have no problems to report. The new, somewhat more effective Windows firewall initially blocks network traffic from cpRepeater in networking mode, as it should. It only takes a single mouse click the first time you start cpRepeater to unblock its network traffic. Anybody that has ever used an effective software firewall like ZoneAlarm will instantly recognize the process. For more information about SP2 , check out: http://support.microsoft.com/default...r=windowsxpsp2 Briefly, SP2 is a significant upgrade to the security of WindowsXP. It's like a flak jacket - it doesn't make you absolutely bullet proof, but it stops a lot of the small caliber stuff. :-) There are other features, but I regard security as the compelling one. Most of the security issues addressed by SP2 will have already been handled by the expert user with add-on firewalls, third party email packages, and a replacement browser like Mozilla Firefox (highly recommended! I switched a few months ago and I find it to be superior in every way. YMMV). For a naked XP system with an internet connection, SP2 is a very important upgrade, but it is not trivial. You should definitely read *all* the information at the above link before upgrading, but my personal opinion is that you should upgrade when it is convenient. Backup your system first! If I happen to uncover any problems with nav software and SP2, I'll post it here, but the original distirbutors of the software are the authoritative source. Glen __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 11:19:49 -0500, "Keith"
wrote: I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. Haven't seen the power or OE bugs. What laptop are you using? I believe that the two firewalls would interfere with each other. I also believe ZA is the one to keep. Current versions of ZA (5.1 and above, I think) are supposed to work with the security center interface. 4.5 definitely does not according to Zone Labs. I took ZA off my machine before the upgrade to see how the Mikeysoft firewall works out. I'll put it back on today to see what happens. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
"Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in
message ... Yeah. By naked, I really meant systems without a solid (i.e. non-Microsoft) firewall and up to date anti-virus package. Which doesn't make what you say untrue. I have to say though, as Windows sytems go, my personal experience has been that XP is head and shoulders above the rest as far as stability goes. I'm almost happy with it, on that score. It's still a pig with a clunky interface, though. That's why I stick to Win2000 on my desktop and Linux for my server. I've heard too many horrorstories, especially when XP just came out. I know a lot has been fixed, but still...... Meindert |
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I thought that ZA pro disabled the WIN XP firewall.
Keith wrote: I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. |
I'm using a Micron Transport ZX, Intel Pentium III @ 701 mhz, 256 meg of
RAM. It's an older computer, but still works pretty nicely with the new stuff. 20 gigs on the hard drive. -- Keith __ A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor. "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 11:19:49 -0500, "Keith" wrote: I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. Haven't seen the power or OE bugs. What laptop are you using? I believe that the two firewalls would interfere with each other. I also believe ZA is the one to keep. Current versions of ZA (5.1 and above, I think) are supposed to work with the security center interface. 4.5 definitely does not according to Zone Labs. I took ZA off my machine before the upgrade to see how the Mikeysoft firewall works out. I'll put it back on today to see what happens. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
Well, I'm using ZA pro 5.1, and as of today, the win security center icon
doesn't show up any longer in the toolbar! Go figure. The Win security center says the windows firewall is on, but in the windows firewall dialog box, it says it's off. I still get the little bubble at startup that warns me my computer may be at risk since the fiewall is off. I'm guessing it's really off, but the win security center is just screwed up. I KNOW ZA is running, thank goodness! -- Keith __ "It's easy to get good players. Gettin' 'em to play together, that's the hard part." - Casey Stengel "Rick" wrote in message ... I thought that ZA pro disabled the WIN XP firewall. Keith wrote: I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. |
On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 17:14:00 GMT, "Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson"
wrote: On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 11:19:49 -0500, "Keith" wrote: I found one irritating thing... when I double click on mail in Outlook Express, a lot of times it opens already scrolled to the bottom of the message. It also seems to think it's on battery and goes to standby mode, even when plugged in. I had to disable standby mode for battery or AC. One question... I've been running ZA Pro for a long time and like it. I have not enabled the new Windows XP firewall, fearing that they will interfere with each other. Any comments on that? The Win XP security center pops up a bubble every time I boot up warning me about the firewall not being on, and I can't find a way to disable that. Other than the few hiccups above, I've seen no problems with the upgrade. Haven't seen the power or OE bugs. What laptop are you using? I believe that the two firewalls would interfere with each other. I also believe ZA is the one to keep. Current versions of ZA (5.1 and above, I think) are supposed to work with the security center interface. 4.5 definitely does not according to Zone Labs. I took ZA off my machine before the upgrade to see how the Mikeysoft firewall works out. I'll put it back on today to see what happens I reinstalled 5.1 las night. Everything is working as it should. If you have 5.1 and are still having problems, try uninstalling and reinstalling ZA. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 10:17:40 -0500, "Keith"
wrote: Well, I'm using ZA pro 5.1, and as of today, the win security center icon doesn't show up any longer in the toolbar! Go figure. The Win security center says the windows firewall is on, but in the windows firewall dialog box, it says it's off. I still get the little bubble at startup that warns me my computer may be at risk since the fiewall is off. I'm guessing it's really off, but the win security center is just screwed up. I KNOW ZA is running, thank goodness! Try expanding the firewall part of the security center by clicking on the little arrows. I'll bet you see that it is actually reporting that ZA is your active firewall. That's the way it's supposed to work, anyway. The firewalls dialog box reports on the windiws firewall only, the security center reports on any firewall that plugs into the new security interface. It's a bit confusing. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 10:14:02 -0500, "Keith"
wrote: I'm using a Micron Transport ZX, Intel Pentium III @ 701 mhz, 256 meg of RAM. It's an older computer, but still works pretty nicely with the new stuff. 20 gigs on the hard drive. To tell the truth, I'm surprised XP works at all. Not so much for the performance, but because I didn't think the manufacturer ever released XP drivers for that system. If I have to guess, and it's only a guess, I'd say it's a driver problem. You could try wherever you got the XP drivers to see if there's an update. I'd say to turn the problem in to Microsoft, but I expect they'd send you back to the manufacturer. Might be worth a try. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
Yea, but I won't get any help from Micron. Since I went to XP, they
basically refuse to do anything, saying that the computer wasn't designed for that. Oh well... By the way, the Win security center IS reporting that Zonealarm is the firewall. Thanks for helping me figure that out. -- Keith __ Boss spelled backwards is 'double-SOB' "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 10:14:02 -0500, "Keith" wrote: I'm using a Micron Transport ZX, Intel Pentium III @ 701 mhz, 256 meg of RAM. It's an older computer, but still works pretty nicely with the new stuff. 20 gigs on the hard drive. To tell the truth, I'm surprised XP works at all. Not so much for the performance, but because I didn't think the manufacturer ever released XP drivers for that system. If I have to guess, and it's only a guess, I'd say it's a driver problem. You could try wherever you got the XP drivers to see if there's an update. I'd say to turn the problem in to Microsoft, but I expect they'd send you back to the manufacturer. Might be worth a try. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
Works fine with my AMD cpu.
Paul http://www.discountmarinesoftware.com "Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in message ... On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 00:29:30 GMT, wrote: It is not "incompatible with AMD64 processors." A single , rather uncommon driver that is not part of the XP distribution is known to have a problem. The vast majority of users that do not have this driver installed have no problem. You badly need to go see what MS says about this endless reboot with AMD64 processor issue. BB Or maybe you should. In fact, let's all go. Maybe we can overload microsoft.com and gain everlasting fame on comp.os.linux.advocacy and SlashDot. http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;878474 As I said, one bad driver tracked to a particular hardware DVD decoder. As it happens, they've already replaced the recommendation to back off SP2 with a workaround to disable the bad driver or just turn off DEP. Either one is easily done in Safe Mode. Same problem, though, unless you have yet another issue in mind. If so, please post the Knowledge Base entry you referenced, since it would indeed be important data. __________________________________________________ __________ Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious. Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/ |
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