Windows XP SP3 Causing Router Crashes 337
KrispyBytes writes "Windows XP SP3 has been named as the culprit causing home routers to go into a crash and reboot cycle. One router maker has released firmware updates to fix the problem, but has not yet revealed what is actually different about XP SP3's networking stack or UPnP behaviour that causes the problem. Router maker Billion Managing Director Raaj Menon said "as Microsoft plans to make Windows XP SP3 an automatic upgrade this month, the number of affected routers may increase significantly.""
Oh brother... (Score:1, Interesting)
What if I was the other way around? (Score:5, Interesting)
Works for me, and probably for you (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never used one, never seen one, never heard of one, and you haven't either. Odd how the summary fails to mention that the problem is only with this obscure model...
Re:What if I was the other way around? (Score:3, Interesting)
Router Trouble. (Score:5, Interesting)
What I don't understand is why so many of your basic 4 ports lan, one port wan, and an antenna type routers have such lousy firmware. I understand that the hardware is built right down to price, and isn't going to be exciting; but software is a different matter. There are really only a few chipset variations in general use, OpenWRT supports most of them and provides a solid and extensible foundation. ddWRT is less extensible and flashier, still solid. Tomatoe is out there as well. In a world where people are literally giving high quality router firmware away, how can anybody ship a router with bad firmware?
Crappy router. (Score:5, Interesting)
XP3 or the router's fault? (Score:2, Interesting)
Speaking Of SP3... (Score:4, Interesting)
Could this be something that would hose a router as well? A ton of useless keep-alives?
notebook & desktop (Score:1, Interesting)
On the desktop I installed SP3 without ay problem.
My freee advice:
--**++ Back up your data before even thinking of SP3 install! ++**--
Re:Here's the technical reason (Score:5, Interesting)
That doesn't make sense, though. Option 43 is sent by the DHCP server to the client. In this case the SP3 machine is the client and the router is the server. It's the server's responsibility to correctly format the vendor-specific data according to the vendor's spec, but the SP3 box shouldn't be the server in the scenario in question.
Re:Before anyone goes on a MS rant (Score:5, Interesting)
All browsers MUST expect garbage input, and pretty much anyone who expects otherwise has their head in the sand, and shouldn't go NEAR code. Document formats don't run in local memory and do not have system access - they're interpreted structures. If a browser crashes, it's the browser's (or it's plugins) fault, 100% of the blame 100% of the time. At worst, you should expect degraded-looking content and that's that.
I don't mean to be snarky, but your argument couldn't be more wrong or inappropriate. With networking, you're pretty close to the physical layer (not a great analogy, but browser code is far removed from traffic and is just a local representation, a user application).
We don't know yet what this is caused by. If it is affecting a lot of routers, it might very well be a "DOS". Or it could be something that holds too many connections open, or IP6 traffic that doesn't go anywhere and ties up the router table till it times out.
This could happen to Linux also, but it's less probable -- it's be code put out in the wild, and the distro's would do their own QA process, and may hold back. Most distros don't run kernel.org kernels, but their own patched tree.
Re:Here's the technical reason (Score:3, Interesting)
Aha. But it still doesn't make sense. If SP3 is sending option 43 as a client, then the data will be in Microsoft's vendor-specific format, not Billion's. The only way Billion would have a problem is if Microsoft changed the format without telling anyone. And why would a router need to look at Microsoft's vendor-specific information in the first place?
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Before anyone goes on a MS rant (Score:2, Interesting)
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/60f9e0c6-dfb3-4ead-aa12-3ba7653664fd1033.mspx?mfr=true [microsoft.com] Of course most routers are not protocol-aware of these, and due to the unexpected use of such protocols, the effects on routers could manifest the reboots that we see. So SP3 IS relevant since it is the ONLY thing that has changed. What this implies to me is that, again, someone dropped the ball in the testing department at either MS or the router(s) companies. These things are going to happen whether its MS, Linux, MAC, Solaris, etc. if updates are deployed without fully testing.
If this is indeed the case, then I'd go so far as to say that its not anyones fault. While I agree that the router shouldn't crash, router manufacturers can't be held liable for not following specifications that weren't available when the router was manufactured, and Microsoft shouldn't be held liable for using said specifications.
Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe it's a coincidence and maybe it's not. The only way to know for sure is if Microsoft honestly comments on it.
Re:Before anyone goes on a MS rant (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What if I was the other way around? (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft (maybe) gets a slap on the wrist for not paying attention; the router manufacturers get a kick in the balls for producing junk.
A rather minor bug like this gets attention.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, anyone using USB 1.1/2.0 devices under SP3 have any issues? On my laptop, I have USB 2.0 devices and USB 1.1 devices running on a USB 1.1 connection (yes, the laptop is that old). When I reboot the machine, XP refuses to boot to the desktop (just hangs after the Windows loading screen) unless I unplug all USB devices from the laptop. Then it continues booting. This behavior did not occur under SP2. I wonder what changed. I've read of similar things happening with some file named Verclsid.exe hanging while trying to authenticate something, but the solution of renaming it with the
I would give up and go back to SP2, but meh
Once upon a time... (Score:2, Interesting)
The "new" Toshiba laptop usually booted Linux. But, there were still a few things I had to do with Windoze, so it still had dual boot capability.
Usually, within 15 minutes of booting Windoze, I had to physically reboot the router.
The solution: First, don't boot to Windoze. Second, get a new router.
The problem did not occur with the wired machines. I always figured it was something wonky in the new XP wireless driver. I tried firmware upgrades, new drivers on the laptop, etc.
At some point, I realized that a new router was far less expensive than the time I was wasting on this Windoze/Linksys incompatibility.