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Too late for Windows Update

Posted: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 11:12 AM by Barry Gervin
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I took the train to Montreal to see DevTeach Conference on Monday Tuesday. I managed to get a train without internet access so I took the opportunity to do a long time coming repave of my laptop. I installed from the Windows XP Pro SP1a msdn dvd. I knew I'd have a ton of Critical Updates to get from the Windows Update site when I got to my hotel, but at least I wasn't installed from the Windows XP gold 1.0 disc.

So I get to my hotel room and there is something like 20 critical updates to do. After I get through those there are some more iterations of recommended updates and more critical updates (on the the recommended ones). It was about an hour or so before I had my machine in a nice secure state......but the whole time I WAS CONNECTED TO THE FRIGGIN INTERNET.

I'm still uninstalling and cleaning virus crap off my VIRGIN XP install that I got while connected to the internet waiting for critical updates to secure my machine.

But the problem is that it's too late. What we need is a roll up (Windows XP SP2) but even that is going to get stale. I think what MSDN needs (or maybe Technet already has this) but a roll up of offline windows update stuff that comes out monthly. An Offline Windows Update of all critical updates that I can run on a virgin machine without connecting to the internet to get them. Isn't there some wishlist address at MS.COM I can send this too?

Comments

  • Barry Gervin June 23, 2004 12:51 PM

    Well, I installed WinXP SP RC2 yesterday and after a reboot my windows crashed and rebooted without closing anything. But now it seems to be stable :)

    Sonu

  • Barry Gervin June 23, 2004 3:36 PM

    I had the same problems with Windows the last time I installed but have since learned that turning on the firewall immediately (I had forgotten to last time) will prevent the problems in some cases. It did in mine.

  • Barry Gervin June 23, 2004 5:34 PM

    Check out:

    Windows XP: Surviving the First Day
    http://www.cablemodemhelp.com/xpsurvivalguide.pdf

  • Barry Gervin June 23, 2004 8:20 PM

    We should setup a Software Update Server at ObjectSharp to do offline updates. I normally update from behind my firewall in any event, and never on an open Internet connection.

  • Barry Gervin June 24, 2004 9:20 AM

    There are two tricks that I usually apply in these situations:
    1. enable firewall software first time after installation (either built-in, but I like the McAfee stuff better)
    2. bring a small ethernet-ethernet router that does NAT.

    In most places, I can use 2.; the outside (WAN) port of the router is configured with either DHCP or static IP-adress.
    The LAN port of the router is configured as a DHCP server, so it usually works with a snap.

    --jeroen

  • Barry Gervin June 25, 2004 7:32 PM

    XP SP2 should go a long way to protecting you, even against unforseen attacks. It doesn't just fix roll up the fixes we've already published; it actually configures the system to be more secure all around.

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