Fwiw, XP SP2 CDs are available at some PC retail outlets. I picked one up from Best Buy late last week, and saw them again at a CompUSA over the weekend. As with the download, ymmv.
-Jim P. On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 21:32, Michel Py wrote: > Nanog folk, > Last week, I downloaded XP2 SP2 on one the major P2P networks (eDonkey). > > > Preliminary/FYI: > > None of the large organizations I am involved with has deployed SP2 on a > large scale yet. Users that request it will likely get it (from a share > on a corporate server that is); some organizations are also testing > their SP2 image by rolling out some of the new PCs with SP2; help desks > are still building FAQs about it as problems generated by early adopters > pop in. I expect most to push it to the desktop with SMS or similar > within a month. > > > Hard facts: > > - The P2P download took two hours. Ymmv. > > - The file was legit (I did a binary compare with the original; > matches). The file I downloaded is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. This > is the full install; the slower your connection to the net is the more > you want to download this only one-time and make it available locally > and burn a CD with it. > > - The original file has been available from Microsoft for at least three > weeks free of charge, no need for any kind of signup. > > > Comments: > > - If I did not have the original file I would not have know which one to > grab. The most distributed files were complete slipstreams, not SP only > (I selected the best file of matching size). > > - Two hours for 266 MB is not too shabby in the absolute, but the > original downloaded in less than 15 minutes from home each time and > tried and a lot less from the office depending where I was. > > - On some P2P systems this kind of download speed can typically be > achieved only by sharing files to get a good U/L ratio. People that > don't share files would get at the end of the queue. > > - I typically get much better download speeds while sharing than people > with an el-cheapo router because I QOS the upstream; one of the > annoyances of sharing files is that it will tend to clog the upstream > making even surfing rather painful. > > - Downloading with P2P requests installing a client and possibly poking > holes in the NAT/Firewall. > > - There is a trust issue. When the file I get is from Microsoft from a > download that I initiated myself not by clicking on a link provided by > someone else, I would tend to trust it. OTOH, all P2P systems feature > large amounts of illegal contents, including some that does not even > exist (Norton utilities 2004, anyone?). > > - I never experienced nor heard any significant pipe clogging because of > SP2. Contrary to some FUD propagated earlier there was no operational > issue as a consequence of the download process. > > > Conclusion: > I did not see any advantage of using P2P to download XP SP2 and several > drawbacks. I will continue to download patches directly from vendors. > > Michel. >
