Slashdot | Windows XP SP3 Causing Router Crashes

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.”

Wow… I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about Windows Updates breaking various pieces of software on the computer that was updated… Or maybe some tightly-integrated piece of peripheral hardware… But killing your router? That’s a new one.

Makes me very glad that I’ve made a habit of disabling UPnP on every router I install.

Posted on June 7 at 3:00 PM