Unplugging SP2

A couple of weeks ago, Wayne Rash used this space to harsh on some university IT administrators for blocking students' access to Windows XP Service Pack 2. I agree with most of his case, except for one of his closing points: Insisting that student computers have SP2 installed before they connect to the campus network is wrongheaded for at least two reasons.

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First, the horse is out of the barn. For some, classes had started before SP2 was pushed out via Microsoft's Automatic Updates network. So if the Everywhere Girl had an infected system, the damage was already done.

Second, mandating SP2 before the kinks were worked out is asking for a heap of trouble that campus IT managers don't have the resources with which to cope. The first step of an SP2 install -- cleaning out the spyware -- is a chore in itself.

Although campus IT admins are overdoing the outcry about bandwidth -- the background transfer via Automatic Updates isn't likely to swamp a dormitory network the way a new multiplayer game will -- a legendary rule may well be a valid concern. This so-called "Pottery Barn rule" applies whenever an IT organization starts waving the "mandatory" flag: you break it, you own it.

Try this scenario: Pat shows up on campus toting a laptop with XP Home. Pat is greeted with a CD and told to install SP2 under penalty of not being allowed to connect to the dorm network. Pat finds that the computer's wireless adapter no longer connects at Starbucks. Pat mentions this to Mom, who happens to be a lawyer. See where this is going?

SP2 changes the way the computer behaves. From my own experience -- and some swoops through my habitual message boards -- wireless networking gets my vote for the Feature Most Likely to Barf. I have a notebook I use for testing wireless adapters, and with SP2 and adapters from three different vendors, my results range from apparently dead to radio-link-without-authentication to authentication-after-coaxing. None of these cards connect as faultlessly as they did before installing SP2.

The common thread is that all of the cards I've tried have their own utilities for setup and authentication, and heaven only knows when Microsoft and the vendors involved will put their heads together and fix the problem. So that's why I'm cautiously recommending SP2, and only to people who don't rely on wireless networking.

In the past couple of years, wireless networking has become just as important as wired is. Unfortunately, securing wireless LANs while keeping them useful is a challenge. Owning the environment is no guarantee of ultimate control and I'll explain why that's true next week.