Should I update windows?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

This may be a silly question, but I have heard mixed messages about wether to update windows or not. I know some people who say not to, and many people who say that you should

Are there any disadvantages at all of updating windows? Maybe such as random programs not working (like bittorrent or something)

Also would it be a smart thing to jump onto service pack 2?

[LorentzForce]

Advantages (security and features) far outperform disadvantages (MS screwing over again and patch making a computer completely unusable). Go update now.

[Slater]

There are a few quirks with the new updates, but they're acceptable.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

There are a few quirks with the new updates, but they're acceptable.

What are such quirks?

[Locke]

The biggest problem with SP2 for me it was fixing it so Half Life 2 could update.

[Slater]

the main quirk is how Windows tells me how insecure it is without a firewall every time I turn my computer on.

[Puritan]

I would REALLY suggest updating. There have been several extremely severe security breaches Microsoft has patched in the past months alone. Plus, I put an unpatched computer on the my school's network, and in the time it took me to patch the machine it had been compromised and the school shut it off the network. You really don't want hackers messing with your machine.

[Kaligraphic]

Puritan - surely you don't mean that your school's network is wide open to the Internet? I mean, it would be insane for them not to have a firewall between their network and the outside.

Mean time to compromise for a freshly installed Windows machine with unfiltered net access is 12 minutes. Tell them to put in a Sonicwall pronto.

Slater - get yourself a software firewall like ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com) - there's a free version.

Monsieur Intelligent Trousers - yes, update your Windows. You're probably part of at least three botnets by now anyway, but try not to make it four. And make sure you have some hardware protection - at least use something like a NAT router to block random attacks.

[Puritan]

I was behind two firewalls, but unfortunately the one on the Engineering campus is evidently regularly compromised by machines on our own network (likely professors who refuse to update old machines and the like). We're evidently close to invulnerable to attacks from the outside, but this type of stuff does cause problems. My point was more an attempt to illustrate the problems you were talking about.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Monsieur Intelligent Trousers - yes, update your Windows. You're probably part of at least three botnets by now anyway, but try not to make it four. And make sure you have some hardware protection - at least use something like a NAT router to block random attacks.

How do I know if I have a NAT router?

[Mithrandir]

Check your IP address of your machine while you are surfing the 'net. If it's 10.n.n.n or 192.168.n.n (likely the latter) then you behind a Nat firewall/router. BTW: What version of Windows are you considering upgrading too? I think XP home will have it's support discontinued at the end of this year (according to the MS website anyway). Their new OS will be coming out soon, so if you want to wait until then, it'll deffindately be more secure. It's relatively hard to hack a box that cannot boot.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Oh yeah, I am behind a NAT router then.

Sadly I do use XP home T___T it's the pits.

.....*holds ibook close to heart* You won't leave me right ibook? That's a good boy ^__^

[Slater]

yeah, I'm behind a router firewall. I think that's good enough, and if it isn't... well, I should renew Norton, I guess.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I also have Norton Antivirus corporate edition 7.6 (gotten from a friend, mwahaha) So I feel particularly safe