RE: XP SP2 other than windows update
Nanog folk, Last week, I downloaded XP2 SP2 on one the major P2P networks (eDonkey). Preliminary/FYI: None of the large organizations I am involved with has deployed SP2 on a large scale yet. Users that request it will likely get it (from a share on a corporate server that is); some organizations are also testing their SP2 image by rolling out some of the new PCs with SP2; help desks are still building FAQs about it as problems generated by early adopters pop in. I expect most to push it to the desktop with SMS or similar within a month. Hard facts: - The P2P download took two hours. Ymmv. - The file was legit (I did a binary compare with the original; matches). The file I downloaded is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. This is the full install; the slower your connection to the net is the more you want to download this only one-time and make it available locally and burn a CD with it. - The original file has been available from Microsoft for at least three weeks free of charge, no need for any kind of signup. Comments: - If I did not have the original file I would not have know which one to grab. The most distributed files were complete slipstreams, not SP only (I selected the best file of matching size). - Two hours for 266 MB is not too shabby in the absolute, but the original downloaded in less than 15 minutes from home each time and tried and a lot less from the office depending where I was. - On some P2P systems this kind of download speed can typically be achieved only by sharing files to get a good U/L ratio. People that don't share files would get at the end of the queue. - I typically get much better download speeds while sharing than people with an el-cheapo router because I QOS the upstream; one of the annoyances of sharing files is that it will tend to clog the upstream making even surfing rather painful. - Downloading with P2P requests installing a client and possibly poking holes in the NAT/Firewall. - There is a trust issue. When the file I get is from Microsoft from a download that I initiated myself not by clicking on a link provided by someone else, I would tend to trust it. OTOH, all P2P systems feature large amounts of illegal contents, including some that does not even exist (Norton utilities 2004, anyone?). - I never experienced nor heard any significant pipe clogging because of SP2. Contrary to some FUD propagated earlier there was no operational issue as a consequence of the download process. Conclusion: I did not see any advantage of using P2P to download XP SP2 and several drawbacks. I will continue to download patches directly from vendors. Michel.
Fwiw, XP SP2 CDs are available at some PC retail outlets. I picked one up from Best Buy late last week, and saw them again at a CompUSA over the weekend. As with the download, ymmv. -Jim P. On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 21:32, Michel Py wrote:
Nanog folk, Last week, I downloaded XP2 SP2 on one the major P2P networks (eDonkey).
Preliminary/FYI:
None of the large organizations I am involved with has deployed SP2 on a large scale yet. Users that request it will likely get it (from a share on a corporate server that is); some organizations are also testing their SP2 image by rolling out some of the new PCs with SP2; help desks are still building FAQs about it as problems generated by early adopters pop in. I expect most to push it to the desktop with SMS or similar within a month.
Hard facts:
- The P2P download took two hours. Ymmv.
- The file was legit (I did a binary compare with the original; matches). The file I downloaded is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. This is the full install; the slower your connection to the net is the more you want to download this only one-time and make it available locally and burn a CD with it.
- The original file has been available from Microsoft for at least three weeks free of charge, no need for any kind of signup.
Comments:
- If I did not have the original file I would not have know which one to grab. The most distributed files were complete slipstreams, not SP only (I selected the best file of matching size).
- Two hours for 266 MB is not too shabby in the absolute, but the original downloaded in less than 15 minutes from home each time and tried and a lot less from the office depending where I was.
- On some P2P systems this kind of download speed can typically be achieved only by sharing files to get a good U/L ratio. People that don't share files would get at the end of the queue.
- I typically get much better download speeds while sharing than people with an el-cheapo router because I QOS the upstream; one of the annoyances of sharing files is that it will tend to clog the upstream making even surfing rather painful.
- Downloading with P2P requests installing a client and possibly poking holes in the NAT/Firewall.
- There is a trust issue. When the file I get is from Microsoft from a download that I initiated myself not by clicking on a link provided by someone else, I would tend to trust it. OTOH, all P2P systems feature large amounts of illegal contents, including some that does not even exist (Norton utilities 2004, anyone?).
- I never experienced nor heard any significant pipe clogging because of SP2. Contrary to some FUD propagated earlier there was no operational issue as a consequence of the download process.
Conclusion: I did not see any advantage of using P2P to download XP SP2 and several drawbacks. I will continue to download patches directly from vendors.
Michel.
not in all areas they are not at any of the retail stores here. On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 18:58, Jim Popovitch wrote:
Fwiw, XP SP2 CDs are available at some PC retail outlets. I picked one up from Best Buy late last week, and saw them again at a CompUSA over the weekend. As with the download, ymmv.
-Jim P.
On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 21:32, Michel Py wrote:
Nanog folk, Last week, I downloaded XP2 SP2 on one the major P2P networks (eDonkey).
Preliminary/FYI:
None of the large organizations I am involved with has deployed SP2 on a large scale yet. Users that request it will likely get it (from a share on a corporate server that is); some organizations are also testing their SP2 image by rolling out some of the new PCs with SP2; help desks are still building FAQs about it as problems generated by early adopters pop in. I expect most to push it to the desktop with SMS or similar within a month.
Hard facts:
- The P2P download took two hours. Ymmv.
- The file was legit (I did a binary compare with the original; matches). The file I downloaded is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. This is the full install; the slower your connection to the net is the more you want to download this only one-time and make it available locally and burn a CD with it.
- The original file has been available from Microsoft for at least three weeks free of charge, no need for any kind of signup.
Comments:
- If I did not have the original file I would not have know which one to grab. The most distributed files were complete slipstreams, not SP only (I selected the best file of matching size).
- Two hours for 266 MB is not too shabby in the absolute, but the original downloaded in less than 15 minutes from home each time and tried and a lot less from the office depending where I was.
- On some P2P systems this kind of download speed can typically be achieved only by sharing files to get a good U/L ratio. People that don't share files would get at the end of the queue.
- I typically get much better download speeds while sharing than people with an el-cheapo router because I QOS the upstream; one of the annoyances of sharing files is that it will tend to clog the upstream making even surfing rather painful.
- Downloading with P2P requests installing a client and possibly poking holes in the NAT/Firewall.
- There is a trust issue. When the file I get is from Microsoft from a download that I initiated myself not by clicking on a link provided by someone else, I would tend to trust it. OTOH, all P2P systems feature large amounts of illegal contents, including some that does not even exist (Norton utilities 2004, anyone?).
- I never experienced nor heard any significant pipe clogging because of SP2. Contrary to some FUD propagated earlier there was no operational issue as a consequence of the download process.
Conclusion: I did not see any advantage of using P2P to download XP SP2 and several drawbacks. I will continue to download patches directly from vendors.
Michel.
Thornton Cierra Group www.cierragroup.com Efficient Licensing and Consulting
FWIW, SP2 rendered my Sony Vaio PCG-SR17 completely useless. From what I can tell, it replaced the PCMCIA bridge driver (pcmcia.sys) with one that does not work, and there is no way to "roll back" the driver to the pre-XP2 one without rolling back the entire OS. I am in an ongoing dialog with MS support trying to resolve the issue and will post if we discover anything significant. But for now, if your laptop uses a Ricoh PCMCIA bridge chip, I'd suggest you hold off on SP2. matto On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 21:58:08 -0400, Jim Popovitch <jimpop@yahoo.com> wrote:
Fwiw, XP SP2 CDs are available at some PC retail outlets. I picked one up from Best Buy late last week, and saw them again at a CompUSA over the weekend. As with the download, ymmv.
-Jim P.
participants (4)
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Jim Popovitch -
Matt Ghali -
Michel Py -
Thornton