Watch Out With Kb885250

[wolfien]

Watch out everyone!

I was building my first unattended XP CD and faced this very weird problem: After the 1st wave of windows updates on my 2nd computer, I couldn't browse all of my network (I have a 750 GB drive (4x200 RAID0) on my main machine). It

was the weirdest of problems: I could see my shares, most files and dirs of the

root of it, but if I opened the dirs, some came empty across the network (but

contained some files and forders for real on my main computer).

I was able to determine the exact windows update that causes this problem:

KB885250 - Security update

I strongly advise that nobody slipstreams this update, and I would greatly

appreciate it if anybody could try to get this problem too...

The problem was also visible on a clean install (not unattended) in a VM.

(VMWare GSX Server, 3.0.0 build 7592), so I recommend applying all of

the other updates first, (this will require a few returns to windowsupdate after

reboots...) Then take a snapshot and install the KB885250. After the reboot, you shoudn't be able to browse all files of remote computers...

[IcemanND]

I had no problem integrating this patch and browsing my shares. everything works as before.

[rjz]

We had to disable auto updates to all 2000/xp computers because, of this. This one would not let mapped drives work. We could also not reconnect. So we had to unisntall and disable it. What would this be about? We are sing an appleshare server.

[Astalavista]

no problems on our workstations at the office

[rjz]

Are you on a network Astalavista? What srevers and shares do you use?

[vertigo]

I have the same problem! I can't browse my Local Network after insaling new M$ updates (so KB885250 is a problem then)

My Networks works slowly (hangs on for 20-30 sec. when I'm trying to browse) and finaly returns an error.

After some tests i found out that after turning on COMPUTER BROWSER service (and one time I had to turn on M$ firewall when having no other firewall on) my Local Network works again.

I dont know if turning on Computer Browser service will help in all cases but it helped in my network

[RogueSpear]

This is all very interesting as I have not had any problems with this. I makes me worry however.

[Glider]

I have the same problem! I can't browse my Local Network after insaling new M$ updates (so KB885250 is a problem then)

My Networks works slowly (hangs on for 20-30 sec. when I'm trying to browse) and finaly returns an error.

...................

I'm getting same issue after KB885250 update.

Browsing network drives often hangs explorer. Sometimes I had to switch off the power.

[RogueSpear]

Everyone who is having the problem: Do you have NetBIOS enabled? And I don't mean any particular service, I mean in the IP properties of your network connection.

I haven't had the problem at all and I always have NetBIOS disabled. How about the other folks who have not had a problem? What is your configuration?

[Astalavista]

i ALSO dont hv netbios installed in my network settings.

what is that for?

[BeenThereB4]

It might be that these people have disabled the Computer Browser service on all their machines. People with real servers on their network or with this service running might not have a problem.

[RogueSpear]

Well I'm running a W2K AD domain. No stinkin WINS, thus NetBIOS is disabled via DHCP (and a machine startup script to catch those 1394, VPN, VMware adapters). I also disable the Computer Browser service via GPO. Strict DNS. No issues.

@Astalavista NetBIOS is the "old" way for browsing other computers on a Microsoft network. In NT4 domains (and W2K domains that maintain NT4 servers), the WINS service was run to maintain a browse list. There were "browser masters" and all manner of lunacy. It was a major bandwidth hog, the database was very easily corrupted and running NetBIOS under TCP/IP is abhorantly insecure. I've never looked back since W2K was released.

The "new" (at least to Microsoft networks) method is DNS. Microsoft finally solved some of their Y1K problems and joined the rest of the planet with DNS. The downside or upside to DNS, depending on your point of view, is that you do not see a list of computers in "Network Neighborhood". Instead you locate computers through Active Directory. There's a lot more to it and I'm sure I either forgot or omitted many important points, but this is basically it in a nutshell.

If anyone is truly interested in learning about WINS, NetBIOS, DNS, Active Directory in a relatively short period of time, I recommend Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows 2000 (or 2003). His Mastering Windows 2000 was a masterpiece. Very readable and easy to understand yet also thorough.

[vertigo]

I decided to do some tests:

I found an older compilation of my unattended winXP and I installed it on my seccond 20GB testing HDD

The compilation was: SP2+KB890175+KB834707+KB885836+KB886185+KB885835+KB873339 (all old hotfixes except M$ last wave)

and:

* computer browser service disabled

result: LAN works corectly - fast with no hangs and errors

then I updated my system using WU and all new updates were downloaded and installed

* after update my LAN was 'disabled' again

after this - format C and reinstall winXP with all hotfixes integrated this time and:

* Computer browser service disabled

* Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) disabled

* Security Center disabled

result: LAN didn't work since first logon

after this i did some actions:

* turned on Computer browser service - LAN didn't work

* used Conection Wizard (Windows Firewall was enabled by it) - LAN didn't work

* enabled 'files and pronters sharing' in Firewall options - LAN started to work

* disabled Computer browser service again - LAN didn't work again

I have no idea what is going on with my win

This problem appears every time after fresh install when useing my last xp unattended cd with all new hotfixes integrated.

[Glider]

It might be that these people have disabled the Computer Browser service on all their machines. People with real servers on their network or with this service running might not have a problem.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Computer browser service is running on automatic, as default.

@RogueSpear

Netbios on TCP/IP is not enabled, I didn't change anything from default.

[Developer]

Hi,

there is one another problem with KB885250 hotfix:

Prerequisities:

- Windows XP workstation,

- Windows 98 server,

- Any application with visual styles (XP themes) support installed on that Win 98

Symptoms:

When I try to launch the application a message appears:

"This application has failed to start because the application configuration

is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem."

When launching the app from Win 98 - everything OK.

I checked out a core of the problem is a visual styles manifest (no matter compiled in exe resources or in separate file) but I think there is no way to solve it without MS intervention (hotfix on hotfix).

Any idea?