Microsoft XP SP2 (was Re: Lazy network operators - NOT)

Tue Apr 20 04:02:21 UTC 2004

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Weeks" <surfer at mauigateway.com>
To: "Dr. Jeffrey Race" <jrace at attglobal.net>
Cc: <nanog at nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 1:07 PM
Subject: Re: Microsoft XP SP2 (was Re: Lazy network operators - NOT)

>
> Think globally.  Even though this forum has NA as its heading, we need to
> think globally when suggesting solutions.  You'll never get any sort of
> licensing globally nor will you EVER get end users (globally) educated
> enough to stop doing the things that they do which allow these events to
> continually occur.
>

I would like to point out one little area of concern in this discussion for
me - that was the critical update for Win XP of March 28th, 2002 in it's
original output, not the amended one.

I don't know how many of your clients were affected by this but I had to
rush about in circles like a duck with a broken wing simply because some
users had altered their own settings, regardless of policy at each company,
so that they could apply updates for themselves. Consequently some XP (and I
believe W2K as well but I didn't see this on a W2K machine personally)
setups just went down in a heap and it took some time to fix them all.

So, while considering global solutions, if anyone were to seriously decide
all Windows machines will now be auto updated whether you like it or not, I
would definitely put a block on Windows web sites - as I had to do at that
time - so that no-one could get an update I didn't apply. Since that time,
any XP update gets tested on a machine that doesn't matter should it go down
prior to installation.

We are all so busy, here, looking at ways to solve a problem that is already
there. It should be stopped prior to it coming out and fixed at that point.
This means REAL beta testers, not whatever is going on in MS right now.
There should also be consequences. That implies a lot of people in I.T.
acting as one mind and enforcing something upon MS. That is where we will
always fail. Like the untended hard drive, we are too fragmented.

Greg.