• August 10, 2004 •
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Review
By: Arie Slob
After long delays, Microsoft finally released Windows XP Service Pack 2 to the public.
I've been running this release on my computers since the final version was made available to the beta testers on the 7th of August, and must say that I haven't run into any problems. So what's this Service Pack 2 all about?
First of all, it is a big step in the right direction as far as security is concerned. Many home users aren't paying any attention to the security of their systems, and as a result, there are way too many insecure systems out there ready to be "taken over" when the next virus or worm comes along.
Improvements to Windows security in Service Pack 2.
Windows Firewall
The new Windows Firewall (previously called Internet Connection Firewall or ICF) is a software-based, stateful filtering firewall that provides protection for PCs that are connected to a network by preventing unsolicited inbound connections through TCP/IP version 4 (IPv4) and TCP/IP version 6 (IPv6).
Windows Firewall is turned on by default for all network interfaces. The new firewall offers sufficient level of protection, and is a big improvement from Microsoft's previous Internet Connection Firewall that was included in Windows XP.
The new firewall also offers boot-time protection, something the previous ICF didn't provide.
For end-users, managing the new firewall will be quite easy. When an application attempts to accept connections from the network or Internet, the firewall will pop-up an alert, and a choice to "Keep Blocking", "Unblock" or "Ask Me Later" (Figure). The alert also contains some information about the application that is attempting to accept the connection.
Managing these rules is also easy; any application blocked/unblocked will be added to the "Exceptions" list, from where you can remove or edit them (Figure).
The Windows Firewall is a big improvement in protecting users, provided they update their systems to Service Pack 2.
For corporate users, Microsoft made management of the new firewall an easy task through the use of group policies.
Internet Explorer
Microsoft's Web browser finally gets some much needed updates! A large portion of security incidents have used Internet Explorer either as an "end" or as "means" to compromise users systems.
After "winning" the browser war with Netscape in the early 1990's, Microsoft abandoned the Internet Explorer team. Probably the bean-counters at the company didn't feel the free Internet Explorer was adding anything to Microsoft's bottom line, although there's never been any official announcement from the company about that. Nor has there been an announcement that recently the Internet Explorer team has been "revived", but I've spoken with engineers on the team who admitted as much.
The updated Internet Explorer was firstly equipped with a pop-up blocker (Figure). The Pop-up blocker blocks most unwanted pop-up windows from appearing. You can configure the pop-up blocker from the Privacy tab from Internet Options, where you can add sites from which you do want to receive pop-ups, and you can also set the level of protection provided by the pop-up blocker.
