SP2 and Networking

Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
successfully managed to retain their networking capability after installing
SP2?

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:00:29 +0100, Steve Richards
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after
> installing
> SP2?
>
>

Nope, I just got back my "normal" network, but WIFI is still down....

Better stick with SP1, good AV (etrust), good firewall (outpost), good
browser (opera) and you'll be quite safe already, on top of this if you
add mailwasher and spybot I don't see what SP2 can bring to you other than
problems (at least that's what it did for me)



--
Email contact

http://cerbermail.com/?ltQ8eCFmRa

I have installed SP2 on a laptop running wireles, and have had no problems.

"Txl" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:00:29 +0100, Steve Richards
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my
PC
> > and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
> > successfully managed to retain their networking capability after
> > installing
> > SP2?
> >
> >
>
> Nope, I just got back my "normal" network, but WIFI is still down....
>
> Better stick with SP1, good AV (etrust), good firewall (outpost), good
> browser (opera) and you'll be quite safe already, on top of this if you
> add mailwasher and spybot I don't see what SP2 can bring to you other than
> problems (at least that's what it did for me)
>
>
>
> --
> Email contact
>
> http://cerbermail.com/?ltQ8eCFmRa

Go through this checklist, do what it says:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spackins.htm

If your system is clean and without remnants of virus/adware/spyware
infections the update will go smoothly. I've done 6 so far (XP Home/Pro,
wired/wireless). My biggest problem was having to reinstall Cisco VPN on
two of them and open up ports in the firewall for my remote control
software.

Lance
*****

Steve Richards said the following on 9/7/2004 6:00 AM:

> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after installing
> SP2?
>
>

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:00:29 +0100, "Steve Richards" <*email_address_deleted*>
wrote:

>Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
>and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
>successfully managed to retain their networking capability after installing
>SP2?

Steve,

A lot of folks have successfully upgraded to XP SP2. Look at how many complain,
and compare that to the thousands of downloads daily.

Read some of the discussions in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general and
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support. Follow their recommendations about
preparing for the install, doing the install, and following up after the
install.

SP2 is NOT a bug free upgrade - no software ever is, or ever will be. But,
considering the diversity of hardware and software running on Windows XP
systems, it's pretty close.

And Steve, please don't contribute to the spread and success of email address
mining viruses. Learn to munge your email address properly, to keep yourself a
bit safer when posting to open forums. Protect yourself and the rest of the
internet - read this article.
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Seven machines so far, no networking problems, few other ones. Two of them
are laptops with wireless, which works better now than it ever has...it
stays connected and doesn't wait for me to tell it to manually connect
(WEP), or connect to a nearby nonsecured network like it did previously.
The rest of the connections are wired and also had no problems.

The most earth-shaking problems I encountered are having to update Nero
(painless and free) and having to switch fonts for Outlook Express to get
back the former appearance. Oh, and shut off the popup blocker since I have
the Google toolbar and didn't need another one.

I updated Norton AV, did a disk cleanup, ran Adaware and Spybot S&D,
defragged, and made a Ghost backup of each machine before the upgrade. I've
had no need for the backup, it's all worked fine.

Gary

"Steve Richards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after
> installing
> SP2?
>
>

I'd like to know more about what happens when you try to connect using WPA
or WEP. What are the symptoms you have?
--
Brandy Griffin, Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Orion23" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:BE7D9E2E-F237-4973-B509-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I updated to SP2 and the only way I get my wireless network to work is if I
> dissable the WPA or WEP encryption.
> Before, with SP1, everything worked fine with WPA security on.
> So the question is not, can you connect wirelessly after SP2, but are you
> able to connect wirelessly with WEP or WAP encryption enabled?
>
> "Steve Richards" wrote:
>
>> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
>> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
>> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after
>> installing
>> SP2?
>>
>>
>>

Hi, here are the details
I have a Netgear 108MBPS Router WGT624 and a Netgear 108MBPS Notebook
adapter WG511T. Router has the latest firmware available, and the notebook
adapter also has the latest drivers available.
I have 2 wired computers and 1 wireless notebook. I had WPA encryption for a
while with SP1 and it all worked fine then.
I updated all three machines to SP2, (2 of them completely from scratch
using a CD which I integrated with SP2).
If I enable WPA on the notebook, and only if the notebook is on at that time
(I use cable internet) the connection will work, with the encryption. But,
the minute I turn any of the other computers on, I get error messages on both
wired PC's about limited or no connection available, or something about an IP
address conflict.
What also happens, is that if I get no error messages at first, the minute I
try to open the IE on any of the wired computers, then the whole connection
drops, on all computers, and here is the weird part, The router keeps on
rebooting constantly once the conflicts starts.
I even returned a router to Netgear thinking it had gone bad, however, the
new one also reacted the same way.
I have tried both, using the windows wireless utility, or the Netgear
utility. (installed-disabled, and completely uninstalled).
What is also weird, is that once I enable WPA on the router, and choose WPA
on the Netgear utility, after many scans for available networks, and it
finally gets detected, the Netgear utility "will insist that the encryption
is WEP, and not WPA"
I set both WPA PSK's, but after running the network scan, the utility
detects the network, but recognizes "WEP" security and even if I try to
correct it manually, it will simply not detect the network anymore, and when
it finally does find it again, well, it's back to "WEP" selection.

"Steve Richards" wrote:

> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after installing
> SP2?
>
>
>

"Orion23" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:9FC556BF-E55E-4811-8D80-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi, here are the details
> I have a Netgear 108MBPS Router WGT624 and a Netgear 108MBPS Notebook
> adapter WG511T. Router has the latest firmware available, and the
> notebook
> adapter also has the latest drivers available.
> I have 2 wired computers and 1 wireless notebook. I had WPA encryption
> for a
> while with SP1 and it all worked fine then.
> I updated all three machines to SP2, (2 of them completely from
> scratch
> using a CD which I integrated with SP2).
> If I enable WPA on the notebook, and only if the notebook is on at
> that time
> (I use cable internet) the connection will work, with the encryption.
> But,
> the minute I turn any of the other computers on, I get error messages
> on both
> wired PC's about limited or no connection available, or something
> about an IP
> address conflict.
> What also happens, is that if I get no error messages at first, the
> minute I
> try to open the IE on any of the wired computers, then the whole
> connection
> drops, on all computers, and here is the weird part, The router keeps
> on
> rebooting constantly once the conflicts starts.
> I even returned a router to Netgear thinking it had gone bad, however,
> the
> new one also reacted the same way.
> I have tried both, using the windows wireless utility, or the Netgear
> utility. (installed-disabled, and completely uninstalled).
> What is also weird, is that once I enable WPA on the router, and
> choose WPA
> on the Netgear utility, after many scans for available networks, and
> it
> finally gets detected, the Netgear utility "will insist that the
> encryption
> is WEP, and not WPA"
> I set both WPA PSK's, but after running the network scan, the utility
> detects the network, but recognizes "WEP" security and even if I try
> to
> correct it manually, it will simply not detect the network anymore,
> and when
> it finally does find it again, well, it's back to "WEP" selection.
>
> "Steve Richards" wrote:
>
>> Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on
>> my PC
>> and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
>> successfully managed to retain their networking capability after
>> installing
>> SP2?
>>
>>
>>

It might be the netgear utility. Use wireless zero (let windows manage
this connection). Others have had to remove their utilities from device
manager altogether to eliminate contention with WZC.

Broadcast SSID, that often helps with problems and there is no security
reason for not broadcasting.

If this is a special high-speed 802.11g network, disable that feature
until you get the system straightened out. Netgear's implementation is
being criticized for instability on other forums.

Make absolutely certain that the workgroup or domain is correct. Others
have found that running the network wizard one to two times finally
solves their connection issues - as if some registry setting is not
being save correctly and the group name is the chief suspect.

Try setting up static IP addresses to eliminate any DHCP issues. There
is no real reason to use DHCP behind a router on a home network, IMO.

Q

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:00:29 +0100, "Steve Richards"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Okay, have just read some of your messages before installing SP2 on my PC
>and laptop. Now I'm worried about installing it at all. Has anyone
>successfully managed to retain their networking capability after installing
>SP2?

I have 3 machines on a home (wireless) network and look after the
systems for a small company (7 machines on a wired network plus
offsite laptops).

I downloaded the 266mb install file for SP2 and put it on cd. One of
the machines at work downloaded it via automatic updates and it
installed without incident. I then loaded onto each of the others
from the cd. All machines in the office retained full functionality
afterwards. One machine took nearly three times as long to complete
for reasons I have not yet determined (all are identical spec) but
still completed successfully.

At home the main box, used as a server, downloaded it via automatic
updates when I wasn't looking. I wasn't planning to install it for a
while as I was waiting for some other network changes to bed in first.
But when I saw it had got it I figured I'd take the plunge.
Installation was fine (although I ignored it's suggestion that I could
keep working whilst it installed). Following this it re-connected to
the wireless network without incident and with a 10% increase in
signal strength. The other machine has not yet been done (the third
is a 98SE box).

My only bugbear is that Windows monitors your firewall and your AV.
The home server has ZA and NAV installed and the resulting situation
was a mess. NAV monitors more or less all system activity for
viruses. ZA monitors NAV's performance and all system activity for
security threats. Windows was also monitoring NAV's performance AND
it was monitoring ZA's performance. It was a total case "watching us,
watching you, watching us, watching you etc". So, before a fight
broke out, I blindfolded Windows so it couldn't watch anything. It
didn't like it but I felt better that my system wasn't chewing up all
its resources with introspection!