Tamero IT Consulting & Services

Microsoft launched Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) over 6 months ago now, businesses and home users are experiencing costly headaches and loss of productivity as users cause havoc attempting to install the upgrade.

You can have the new security in the Windows XP environment, but the price you pay is having to deal with some of the compatibility issues. Further problems are caused by the Windows XP feature that allows users to have Microsoft download and install the 'patches' automatically; however most of the problems seem to relate to the automatic installation of Windows Firewall, which is part of the SP2 upgrade, which has caused loss of files or even corruption of Windows itself, thus requiring a rebuild.

SP2 does a good job of keeping out hackers, viruses and spyware, Windows Firewall however sometimes restricts legitimate traffic like remote management, peer-to-peer networking, FTP, general web browsing and file and print sharing features. Windows Firewall blocks activity on most ports by default. This is a good feature, but it breaks many applications because they need some specific ports open for communications such as printers.

The first option is to visit the manufacturer's website and download the latest drivers to correct any problems or alternatively, you can allow third-party software to run, but you must identify and then construct and implement a rule in the software to open the ports that each application requires.