[Question] Questions about sp2

[winner]

I'm a new member of msfn and want to ask ask a question about sp2. what exactly sp2 contain?

all security updates and all update packages all hotfixes before it or only all security updates before it.

please help me. I don't know english very well so I would be glad if you use clear sentences

Title edited -- Please, use [TAGS] in your topic's title.

--Sonic

[prx984]

hi and welcome to the MSFN forums.

to get to your question, SP2 contains the major updates since SP1 and it has a few new enhancements. Such as, a built in firewall, the security center. this program monitors everything to do with computer security. it mainly monitors, windows updates, anti-virus software (if any) and the windows firewall. theres other little things like the wireless network icon in the system tray. it use to be the icon for the LAN but now it looks like a little computer with a signal being broadcasted out the side of it.

another thing that is updated in the SP2 is the boot screen. before it use to show the windows edition you had, but now it just shows Windows XP then a blue bar. other than that, i cant think of much ofo the top of my head. if you want a complete list of the updates that are included in SP2, i can look and see if i can find it for you.

-brian

[T D]

Another thing that blows my head off is the tcp/ip concurrent limit.

[prx984]

i havent had any problems with it, but then again, i dont do too much with the internet. just browse the net and chat on msn or aim. although, i thought there was a way to remove the limit?

-brian

[Mr Snrub]

what exactly sp2 contain?

all security updates and all update packages all hotfixes before it or only all security updates before it.

XP SP2 contains ALL hotfixes released for Windows XP up to a certain date (around July 2004).

It is not just major updates or security hotfixes, the latest version of every binary which has been changed since the release of Windows XP is included (not just since SP1).

Similarly, when SP3 comes out it will contain every binary that has been changed up to shortly before the date it is released.

Edited June 18, 2006 by Mr Snrub

[Sonic]

Another thing that blows my head off is the tcp/ip concurrent limit.

Note there isn't any slow down if the program is written correctly.

[Mr Snrub]

Another thing that blows my head off is the tcp/ip concurrent limit.

This is often mis-stated - the limit is on outstanding (i.e. incomplete) TCP connections from the machine.

This was introduced to prevent the impact of worms from infected machines, reducing the potential rate at which they can spread dramatically.

TCP connections to valid services are very quick to set up, so the chance of hitting >10 connections being built at the same time is slim (plus the stack backs off and retries automatically).

By default Windows has just under 4000 ports available for outbound connections and this limit has not been touched - they can all be in use simultaneously.

P2P software performance can be affected because of its poor design, and the fact that so many users are firewalled and use "drop" instead of "block" rules, so the outgoing connection attempts have to time out.

[T D]

But isn't it better if only one is used rather than 4000?

p2p connects (or attempts to anyway with an unpatched tcpip.sys) on average at a beginning of a download about 80 connections.

i thought there was a way to remove the limit?

But when I upgraded to sp2 I wondered what had happened to my internet cos I couldn't download a simple pdf file in p2p! Then after googling, I removed it. But that was when I was a novice and didn't know anything. We all were once

This is often mis-stated - the limit is on outstanding (i.e. incomplete) TCP connections from the machine.

This was introduced to prevent the impact of worms from infected machines, reducing the potential rate at which they can spread dramatically.

I know but it still affects a lot of other things. And I know how concurrent connections work.

By default Windows has just under 4000 ports available for outbound connections and this limit has not been touched - they can all be in use simultaneously.

But unfortunatly, p2p doesn't use 3999 ports, it only uses 1 at a time. What can I do about that other than write my own (which I don't know how)?

@Sonic That's true but most p2p and IM clients do have bugs and most p2p can limit connection attempts but it's still slow.

[Mr Snrub]

But isn't it better if only one is used rather than 4000?

p2p connects (or attempts to anyway with an unpatched tcpip.sys) on average at a beginning of a download about 80 connections.

The client machine as a whole uses multiple source ports for its concurrent connections - otherwise waiting for a webpage to load would be a horrible experience.

First you GET the HTML source, then you do a GET for each page element (scripts, CSS files, images, plugins, etc.) and these occur concurrently - if only one source port were available then they would queue up and rendering a simple page would take a lot longer, regardless of how much bandwidth you might have.

This is often mis-stated - the limit is on outstanding (i.e. incomplete) TCP connections from the machine.

This was introduced to prevent the impact of worms from infected machines, reducing the potential rate at which they can spread dramatically.

I know but it still affects a lot of other things. And I know how concurrent connections work...

...But unfortunatly, p2p doesn't use 3999 ports, it only uses 1 at a time. What can I do about that other than write my own (which I don't know how)?

This last statement shows you still don't have a grasp on how TCP works - outbound connections use local source ports in the range 1024-5000 by default.

The whole reason P2P suffers a performance hit when starting up is that it tries to use a large number of these ports to test if various other people downloading or seeding the file at that time are available, of which many will be firewalled and hence unresponsive.

P2P uses one port (or a small range of ports perhaps) for inbound connections and it will use many ports for outbound connection attempts.

Once the P2P client has got up to speed (the firewalled users have timed out and the actual sharers are connected, the performance picks up and the transfer will gain speed.

If the tracker servers maintained a dynamic list of which connected users were not firewalled then it would make the whole system much more reliable - the clients do not have to probe to see if the other users are able to receive connections as the server will have done it and can tell them. Like I said, it's a design flaw with the current implementation of P2P.

We have gone way OT for this thread now, however

PM me if you have any questions on this.

[Zxian]

Like people have said before, the TCP/IP limit will NOT affect common day to day internet usage (i.e. no P2P).

Anyways... Service Pack 2 includes all of Service Pack 1, the updates between the two, and many other security and usablility enhancements. If you're asking the question on whether or not to upgrade, the answer is almost always yes.

[T D]

I do know the basics (did I say I'm an expert?) but it is still annoying if you use p2p with sfp. That's the point I was trying to make; how did this turn into an argument?

I would update to sp2, would you want the early or latest version of windows patches?