Comment by Dalewyn
2 years ago
There's a lot of fearmongering around keeping updated, and "connecting Windows XP to the internet is a bad idea" is one of them.
What makes this truly devious is that there's a kernel of truth to it: Connecting Windows XP to the internet will indeed give you a bad day.
That's not what happens most of the time now, though: Most computers, Windows XP or otherwise, are going to be connected to a LAN behind a gateway/router and a firewall sitting between the LAN and the internet. Windows XP is therefore isolated from most of the threats that are indeed very real.
Windows XP itself also has a firewall built-in, though the OOTB settings won't provide adequate protection.
The moral of this is, the best lies are those with hints of truth sprinkled in.
Well now that there's no other XP LAN hosts it's mostly OK. Getting it on an unclean LAN with infected hosts will get you infected, and that was a common occurence back in the day.