Windows XP Service Pack 2

For those of you who run Windows XP, you may have heard about Service Pack 2 (SP2). There's been a lot of talk about it, both good and bad, but not a lot of data. Only now are we beginning to see some real reports on problems. Many of the Windows gurus have been recommending not installing it. The word that is beginning to spread is that many systems have no problems with it, but there are enough systems that do that the initial advice still holds: If you haven't installed SP2, don't.

What sort of problems are people reporting with SP2? Here's a sample from several different reports:

1. Makes your Internet connection very slow (Mike Whalen of The Computer Valet reported this in his client letter)
2. Breaks a number of tools and utilities (you can see the current list of programs that have problems with SP2 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884130)
3. Makes about 15% of the systems on which it's installed unusable, about half of which needed to be completely rebuilt (see http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/000167.html for this report)

There is very little in SP2 that is important to experienced XP users. A lot of the new features benefit new XP users -- for example, the Windows firewall, which defaults to Off in the original system now defaults to On after installing SP2. Of course, if you use a third-party firewall, and we recommend you do, you then have to manually turn off the Windows firewall.

If you have Windows AutoUpdate turned on, turn it off temporarily. But remember to manually download updates other than SP2 for a month or so. By then, most of the bugs should be worked out of SP2 and everyone with Windows XP can download it safely.

Cheating on the Search Engines

There are lots of ways to cheat on the search engines (the terminology used by Search Engine folks is "spoofing"), and there are a lot of people who will willingly help you do it. Some will be honest and tell you that is what they are doing and some will not. How can you tell if you are being offered a spoofing search engine technique, and what are the consequences of cheating?

If someone guarantees to put you in one of the top 10 positions in the search engines, they are probably using one of the spoofing methods. There are simply no guarantees in the search engine business using legitimate methods. If they use words like "doorway pages" or "cloaking," you can be sure they are using spoofing methods. And if they guarantee they can do it for very short money, they are either using spoofing techniques or they are planning to take your money and disappear before you discover they aren't doing anything.

OK, well, what's wrong with spoofing? For one thing, you risk being banned from the search engines for a long time if you are caught. Several search engines specifically prohibit this practice and promise to remove you completely from their database if they find you. It usually takes 6 months to a year, plus the services of a search engine specialist and a lot of expensive changes to your website to get you back onto the search engines once you've been banned.

And how will they catch you? Your competition, of course. In any reasonably competitive field, your competitors will reverse-engineer your code if you are among the top sites in the search engines, to figure out how you did it. If they find something they know is prohibited, you can bet they will turn you in (Google even has a page for submitting sites you think are breaking the rules).

Our advice is: Don't do it! There are a number of perfectly legitimate methods of getting your site to show up in a good position on the search engines, without the risk. Talk to us -- we will happily explain all the options.

Thanks for joining us this month. See you next month.