XP No support after 8/4/14. What are the options?

[Afilsdesigne 10]

Some very interesting and thought through replies - thanks! Let me state at the outset that I'm not going to argue with anyone about whether x system is better than y system and nor am I 'moaning about spending money"! This is a real issue and has implications for anyone who goes online, especially to shop.

 

Many many people and small to medium size businesses use XP and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. For anyone who shops online, this is potentially serious as your personal details may be compromised. This happened to me a couple of months ago - perfectly normal online purchase (kitchenware) and then their payment processor got hacked resulting in a note from the police and a new card. Now it may or may not be anything to do with XP but the point is, we all increasingly rely on the internet and therefore security really IS important.

 

In our case, we isolated the XP machines running legacy software from the web and moved all the online stuff over to Linux (Mint with a MATE desktop). This was horrendous, took ages and was a pain, but, unexpectedly, now works better and faster than before. Indeed our openVPN web connection which always ran at around 1Mb/s-3Mb/s on XP, now flies along at ten times that speed or more.

 

Complacency (or ignorance) is a dangerous quality when using the web and online safety is probably as much about the user as the hardware. Ally this with bug ridden OS software and a virulent hacker community and the threats are all too real and no, this isn't paranoia.

The latest software and up to date virus programs do help, but are by no means the whole answer. Nor is Linux totally secure.

 

I'd still be interested in any sandbox, VM or port blocking observations though, as it would be helpful for us to share files securely across our local intranet whilst maintaining 100% isolation from the web for the XP machinery.

 

Thanks again.

[ccit 10]

Thank you for this information and for the explanation of your own experience, especially with Linux.

 

I have recently been helping a friend get online for her own small business. She had an elderly XP desktop which I strongly encouraged her not to use. As money was tight, we obtained an ex-corporate refurbished computer running Windows 7 Professional for a modest sum. The technician told us that it was absolutely essential to upgrade, especially as we are going to input customers' details and ordering items online.

 

If the security of customer information is compromised and it can be proved that this was due to IT negligence then businesses really would not have a leg to stand on.

Edited December 22, 2013 by ccit

[Resident 1,185]

Worryingly the site where I work has about 1000 computers, all connected to the company mainframe infrastructure, all still running XP. There are several sites, some international which also still run XP.

[Ghozer 112]

Worryingly the site where I work has about 1000 computers, all connected to the company mainframe infrastructure, all still running XP. There are several sites, some international which also still run XP.

 

That's not as bad though, because it will all be routed through master servers, probably running windows server or linux, which will be locked down and keep all the nasties out....

[dosxuk 10]

anything lower specification than that either needs replacing any way, or is on, or not far from being on it's last legs any ways!!!

 

Still running a 266MHz P2 here with a whopping 64MB or RAM. It runs XP quite happily, and sits there talking to a handful of bits of external hardware over RS232. Not been any business need to update or upgrade the machine, and still isn't, so it will probably be running XP for a few years yet.

 

Exploiting software vulnerabilities is currently the number one way to get malware installed on a machine.

 

Higher than social engineering? Really?

[999tigger 10]

If you are a business and you are running XP then you are taking a risk, especially if your business collects confidential data or does any form of e commerce. Such businesses have been given a long time to prepare and should have veen writing down the value of their IT over many years. If they cant plan ahead or refuse to pay to keep their software up to date or secure then more fool them.

 

They are being negligent.

[dosxuk 10]

If you are a business and you are running XP then you are taking a risk, especially if your business collects confidential data or does any form of e commerce.

 

Which in my case, doesn't apply, the XP machines live on their own firewalled broadband connection, with no physical or VPN type links to the machines used by people. My point was that just because a computer is old it doesn't mean it needs to be replaced, it's on it's last legs, or that W7 is automatically an option.

[waddler8 10]

Higher than social engineering? Really?

Quite often in tandem with it. "Click this link" leading to a exploit domain.

[999tigger 10]

Which in my case, doesn't apply, the XP machines live on their own firewalled broadband connection, with no physical or VPN type links to the machines used by people. My point was that just because a computer is old it doesn't mean it needs to be replaced, it's on it's last legs, or that W7 is automatically an option.

 

Dos ypu would fall within the ambit of planning ahead.

[Guest]

Still running a 266MHz P2 here with a whopping 64MB or RAM. It runs XP quite happily, and sits there talking to a handful of bits of external hardware over RS232. Not been any business need to update or upgrade the machine, and still isn't, so it will probably be running XP for a few years yet.

 

Indeed. I think as long as you know what you're doing it's really not an issue. It's normal desktop users and companies with crap firewalls/anti-virus that will have issues.

[swarfendor437 14]

Some very interesting and thought through replies - thanks! Let me state at the outset that I'm not going to argue with anyone about whether x system is better than y system and nor am I 'moaning about spending money"! This is a real issue and has implications for anyone who goes online, especially to shop.

 

Many many people and small to medium size businesses use XP and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. For anyone who shops online, this is potentially serious as your personal details may be compromised. This happened to me a couple of months ago - perfectly normal online purchase (kitchenware) and then their payment processor got hacked resulting in a note from the police and a new card. Now it may or may not be anything to do with XP but the point is, we all increasingly rely on the internet and therefore security really IS important.

 

In our case, we isolated the XP machines running legacy software from the web and moved all the online stuff over to Linux (Mint with a MATE desktop). This was horrendous, took ages and was a pain, but, unexpectedly, now works better and faster than before. Indeed our openVPN web connection which always ran at around 1Mb/s-3Mb/s on XP, now flies along at ten times that speed or more.

 

Complacency (or ignorance) is a dangerous quality when using the web and online safety is probably as much about the user as the hardware. Ally this with bug ridden OS software and a virulent hacker community and the threats are all too real and no, this isn't paranoia.

The latest software and up to date virus programs do help, but are by no means the whole answer. Nor is Linux totally secure.

 

I'd still be interested in any sandbox, VM or port blocking observations though, as it would be helpful for us to share files securely across our local intranet whilst maintaining 100% isolation from the web for the XP machinery.

 

Thanks again.

 

I just read your Linux link - one glaring mistake in the article states

 

"From day one, the development of the Unix operating system (upon which Linux is based) ..."

 

Is totally inaccurate - M$ funds a right-wing Economic organisation that in turn funded a Computer Engineer to analyse whether GNU/Linux had used any code from Unix - he found nothing - and was disbelieved and requested to check again. (GNU = GNU is Not Unix!).

 

Interesting comment below the article here:

 

"I'm not a computer savvy, but I find this article rather soft in arguments, and clearly in favour of windows. I stopped using windows about three years ago, and to date I think that has been one of my best decisions. One thing I have of windows, beside the security risks, was the fact that my older computers did not support the latest releases, making me very vulnerable to attacks as it indeed happened twice. Once I moved to linux and started playing with it, I got a 15 year-old PC running stronger than ever, no security incident to date and a huge community ready to react to about any thing. I even have another much older machine running as a server..."

 

To ask the way forward it would be helpful if you gave the requirements you need in respect of applications. Where GNU/Linux can be vulnerable to the ill-informed are scripts that can execute something like 'sudo rm -rf /*' which would wipe your GNU/Linux install off your machine - this was wrapped up in a 'theme' for GNU/Linux.

 

If you are looking at server replacement, take a look here:

 

http://www.1a-centosserver.com/

 

Or you could use Windows Server and use Zorin for desktop - there have been Zorin users who have done this.

 

Or get the best of both worlds:

 

http://www.ulteo.com/home/

[dosxuk 10]

I just read your Linux link - one glaring mistake in the article states

 

"From day one, the development of the Unix operating system (upon which Linux is based) ..."

 

Is totally inaccurate - M$ funds a right-wing Economic organisation that in turn funded a Computer Engineer to analyse whether GNU/Linux had used any code from Unix - he found nothing - and was disbelieved and requested to check again. (GNU = GNU is Not Unix!).

 

Would you agree that WINE is based on the Windows APIs?