George said:
The security issues that MDAC 2.8 was to fix are more rightly called
"removal of enhancements." For example the removal of Data Access
functionality with one of the updates to IE. These "security" fixes if
installed turns Visual InterDev into a no show. You may not care about
that but the fact remains that MDAC security fixes as well as IE security
fixes disable functionality of your Windows. From my perspective it is
better to take the necessary security precautions imstead of disabling
Windows and its constituent parts. Not all agree with me here we each
make our own decisions.
Okay thanks for explaining your view on that.
Also yes I think it's well understood that 'sometimes' yes security updates
do more to cause other problems than was intended, but moreso if the original
programmer is not attending their own code and a new person is on the job,
then it can be more of a stop gap measure instead of being thoroughly thought
through.
The issue of MDAC and .NET was more prone to effect Windows XP.
Documented. But the same issue occurs in Windows 2000. I spoke to
Microsoft about my "experience" with MDAC 2.8 in Windows 2000 and he told
me, "yes" they have a lot of support calls from businesses with that setup
and he suggested I stay at 2.7 and I am passing that info along to you.
Okay thanks for explaining that more.
I would never install .NET on any OS anyway, just my personal preference, and
so if it was an issue between MDAC vrs .NET then that leaves me gladly out of
the loop. I can't recall though if the OP said they need to use .NET or not?
MDAC v2.8 is installed on all my W98SE, W2000, WXP boxes and seems to be
flawless; I wonder if I may not need to utilize it the way others may need
to.
No I don't know if they have "fixed" it. I don't care to test it again.
For one thing I will not install 2.8 in Windows 2000. It's in Windows XP
and 2003 and so they are prime candidates for upgrades to MDAC from 2.8
on. Also IE from 6 on. Windows 2000 upgrades should stop at MDAC 2.7 and
IE 5.5. After that although everything seems well it may not be. I think
the op has experienced this.
Now that's interesting you stop at 5.5SP2 on W2K
In one sense I almost understand that sentiment but feel that way instead
with IE5.5SP2 on W98SE for a number of reasons. At least 5.5 is still being
undated for W2K but unfortunately it's not for W98SE and so there is a bit of
a force play if one want's to stay current with security updates, of which
there seems to be plenty of important ones these days. I agree with you 'in
some cases' that because of the infallibility of the way they code updates
that sometimes it's better to take the necessary security precautions instead
of installing a particular security update when that update was poorly
improvised, and/or yes have always noticed sometimes security updates limit
or even break the original functionality. I can't see any reason for not
going to IE6 on W2K though; although the transition from 5.5 to 6 getting and
use to the new cookie and privacy control way of doing things - was
admittedly an unwanted royal p.i.t.a
Okay, thanks for the replies, I think though still for me I'll stay with MDAC
2.8 for all my OS's until I find a specific reason or active scenario that
proves it should be otherwise.
Rick
