Welp, finally downloaded SP2.

Andvari

Senior member
Jan 22, 2003
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No problems so far, but I was noticing that it has re-activated a service I had previously disabled. Did the installation of SP2 return all services to their defaults? I'd hate to run through Blackviper's list again and figure out what services I want disabled. :(
 

Winchester

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
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I didnt notice any changes to my services, but it probably depends on which ones you had disabled etc.
 

dfi

Golden Member
Apr 20, 2001
1,213
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The only service that I noticed sp2 reactivated was automatic update. Also, it installed wmp9.

dfi
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
After installing SP2, I had IE lockup for the first time in months. Microsoft is the best.
 

jrphoenix

Golden Member
Feb 29, 2004
1,295
2
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I have heard that SP2 knocks down P2P without changing some settings? Does anyone have any information on this, only thing keeping me from downloading the update.

Thank you,

 

Mareg

Member
Jul 24, 2004
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Ok, I did install the SP2 on my system and I'm a MAD system tweaker.

SP2 intallation DO run some new services and activate others. My active services passed from 15 to 20. With optimal tweaking, I was able to substract 3 new services.
What is really bugging me the most is that my minimum ram commit passed from 75meg to 120meg. This is just plain wrong. Also, my computer take about 5-8 seconds more to boot... and that is after doing a Defrag (the installation does fragment your disc like crazy. I had a critical system file that was fragmented in 42 pieces !???).

Anyway, all of my programs do run flawlessly but for the tweakers out there, SP2 is a major letdown. I hope the security treat really justify this profanity.
 

Mareg

Member
Jul 24, 2004
170
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Originally posted by: jrphoenix
I have heard that SP2 knocks down P2P without changing some settings? Does anyone have any information on this, only thing keeping me from downloading the update.

Thank you,

Bittorent and Kazaa resurection passed SP2.

EDIT : Just to clarify that I deactivated the SP2 firewall.
 

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
Originally posted by: jrphoenix
I have heard that SP2 knocks down P2P without changing some settings? Does anyone have any information on this, only thing keeping me from downloading the update.

Thank you,

It's false. SP2 adds a TCP connection queue, not a limit.

bsobel explains it very well in this thread

Originally posted by: bsobel
The people claiming that their is a TCP/IP connection limit in SP2 are spreading FUD (this isn't directed at you elkinm, I'll explain what MS did in a second). I've seen this 'limit' quoted on a zillion sites, and it simply not true.

What was added was a queue (not a limit) of the number of uncompleted TCP connection outstanding. The default queue size is 10. Which means you can attempt to establish 10 TCP connection at once and their is no change in the behaviour. If you try to establish 20 at once, the first 10 are put on the wire while the next 10 are queued and released as those first 10 either complete or fail (e.g. first connection is built, #11 is put on the wire, #4 fails, #12 is put on the wire, and so on).

In 'normal' usage, TCP connection establish quickly and you simply won't notice any difference. Where you will see a difference is if you try to create a large number of connections to sites which are not listening/responding to your requests (so in your examples "Multiple IE or other active browsers, multiple downloads, multiple email, telnet, ftp, ssh clients and others may run. Norton update, weatherbug, VPN, terminal services, and a telnet and web server on my PC, and possibly multiple multisource download clients and programs, by own or something like steam or fileplanet." there are all services which will respond quickly and even if you tried really hard, I do not believe you would ever be able to determine if the queuing happened.)

So, why the change? Flash worms that utilize TCP connections typically sit and loop while connecting to a random IP (they then attempt to infect that machine and they go back to picking another random target). Some of these worms can literally eat up your entire connection while they sit and pump packets out, since many of the destinations are not going to be valid targets (since the selection was random) this queue will kick in and help throttle how quickly the worm can leave the box.

Even throttled the worm will still spread quickly, but more importantly (and the reason for this feature), your connection will not become so unusable that you will be unable to access updates/repair tools/patches/etc.

Bill