XP SP2 other than windows update

Tue Sep 7 01:58:08 UTC 2004

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.
> 