Windows XP Service pack 3

AntiThesis said:
I'm going to install the newest Vista beta tonight and see what it's like (32bit)
Any idea wher someone could get it without having a MSDN subcription and having to download it from some dodgy russian site which my anti-virus keeps on blocking and complaining bout virus attacks? :confused:
 
Its not really wrong if XP tells you that you are "limited or no connectivity" on a PPPoE loopback since you really dont have a connection yet, you still have to "dial-up"

Guys, just be careful with XPSP3 preview updates, one of them causes svchost.exe to explode everytime you run windows update.
 
I was informed from a reliable source that you would need a PC with at least a 3Ghz processor...besides Vista will only be available with the sale of new machines Whether this will be relaxed or not it remains to be seen...There are no exact Computer specs yet as it is still in a testing stage...Maybe we could have some input from the Vista Beta testers...
 
"Limited or no connectivity" is not and has never been a bug .... rather just a bad choice of words by Microsoft.

It happens when an IP interface is configured to get its IP addr automatically (dynamically) and it never recieves one (e.g. no DHCP server around). That covers the 'no' part.

When the interface doesnt get an IP addr assigned, it falls back to a private address randomly selected from the range 169.254.0.0 as per rfc3330. Thats the 'limited' part.

What the message should read is "Automatically assigned IP address was not recieved, using private IP address" but I suppose MS thought this would be confusing to newbies.

This message can be rectified by ...

- making sure there is a DHCP server around to provide an IP
- changing the interface to use a statically configured IP
- disabling (unticking) TCPIP completely off the interface

The reason why this message is usually associated with broadband connections, is that ppl mistakenly assume PPPoE requires IP to operate. While PPPoE carries IP as a payload, it uses direct Ethernet MAC addr to MAC addr communication to forward packets (basically bridging), hence its name PPPoE not PPPoIP.

Since broadband modems e.g. ADSL, iBurst, myWireless etc. (not routers) only talk PPPoE and not IP, one can disable (untick) TCPIP from the Ethernet interface directly connected to the modem, thereby eliminating the "Limited or no connectivity" message without affecting the broadband connection that passes through it.

The only exception to this is if the same interface is used for some other IP communication as well the PPPoE. Then setting the required IP addr statically should be done (since if there was a DHCP server, you wouldnt get the message in the first place).

EDIT NOTE: I've seen this question asked so many times in this and other forums, I thought I'd expand it to the full explanation.
 
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