Hi all

Is there any way i can minimise the inpact on my system when these blighters come through? About every 3/4 months when they come through they knock out my network in the office resulting in my IT bloke spending half an hour talking to me like a child over the fone so i can get it up and running!!! Now some times they come through and it just slows my machine to a snails pace resulting in me wanting to throw it out of the window and smash it with a hammer!!

My IT bloke says theres nothing i can do and microsoft are aware of the problem and have a fix, but it doesnt work!!

Any ideas?

Cheers

Kit:)

Do you not have a central update server?

What's actually the problem?

Is it just that it's running slowly when they are installing , or that they install and then your PC plays up?

Automatically allowing updates to install in a business environment worries me.

Why not switch off automatic update, and get your I.T. guy to visit now and then to run through a controlled update?

Phil

Automatically allowing updates to install in a business environment worries me.

Why not switch off automatic update, and get your I.T. guy to visit now and then to run through a controlled update?

Phil

The best way to do it is use a WSUS server to download all the updates then farm them out to the clients - you save a lot of bandwidth and have control over what does and doesn't get put on there,

You can run a guinea-pig selection of PCs as a test and then roll the updates out to everyone afterwards

True -but my reading of the original post suggested that Kit has a fairly small environment, with a part time IT bloke who's not actually based onsite. A WSUS server is a great solution, but only if you have someone who can manage it.

Phil

We have a server and what happends is that while the updates are coming through (normally during the night) and we get into the office in the morning then the office wireless network that allows me to look at files on the server and use the tinterweb is down. If i remember from yesterday it was the "epsec" ( spelling could be out) folder that was not starting automatically!! When we finally get it up and running then when my machine in my office starts to download them it can take half a day and my machine just runs very slow, opening and closing files and getting onto web pages!! and sometimes in my business...time is money!!

Cheers

Kit

We have a server and what happends is that while the updates are coming through (normally during the night) and we get into the office in the morning then the office wireless network that allows me to look at files on the server and use the tinterweb is down. If i remember from yesterday it was the "epsec" ( spelling could be out) folder that was not starting automatically!! When we finally get it up and running then when my machine in my office starts to download them it can take half a day and my machine just runs very slow, opening and closing files and getting onto web pages!! and sometimes in my business...time is money!!

Cheers

Kit

So are you all using a wireless network in your office?

If so I'd hazard a guess that that's the problem as the bandwidth is shared between all the devices connected to an access point , and when you have a lot of data to shift (such as from windows updates) it will slow to a crawl.

The best way to do it is use a WSUS server to download all the updates then farm them out to the clients - you save a lot of bandwidth and have control over what does and doesn't get put on there,

You can run a guinea-pig selection of PCs as a test and then roll the updates out to everyone afterwards

This is what I was refering to! :yes:

Automatically allowing updates to install in a business environment worries me.

It worries me as well, but its a requirement of an external government network our office is connected to, that all updates are applied to both desktops and the server farm asap after the update is released. For me, that means testing the updates and deploying within 48hrs of release to the desktops and all servers the following weekend. We use WSUS to deploy and reboot everything, never had any issues yet with any updates.

It worries me as well, but its a requirement of an external government network our office is connected to, that all updates are applied to both desktops and the server farm asap after the update is released. For me, that means testing the updates and deploying within 48hrs of release to the desktops and all servers the following weekend. We use WSUS to deploy and reboot everything, never had any issues yet with any updates.

Agreed.

I've seen more problems caused by unpatched systems than issues directly caused *by* the updates.

We only have a server, a machine for my brother and a laptop for me, but every time we get an update that it doesnt like it looses the connection...im just getting fed up with it!! When the updates come through without crashing my system then the whole system runs so slow....yes we have an IT guy who works for the company who installed our system and he is just on the end of the phone but its the hassle of loosing nearly an entire day dicking about trying to get it sorted!!

K:)

We only have a server, a machine for my brother and a laptop for me, but every time we get an update that it doesnt like it looses the connection...im just getting fed up with it!! When the updates come through without crashing my system then the whole system runs so slow....yes we have an IT guy who works for the company who installed our system and he is just on the end of the phone but its the hassle of loosing nearly an entire day dicking about trying to get it sorted!!

K:)

So is it the server that falls over, or your systems that fall over.

The link going slow will just be the bandwidth used by pulling them down, if you schedule this correctly you can get them all pulled down at night when you are out of the office and ready to install when you're free.

Its the server that goes down as whenever ive been talked through it by our IT guy its the server that he gets me to access.....There are shedualed to come through during the night but because it keeps bringing down my network i have to fix it first, then they come down during the day when the network is working again!!

K:)

Its the server that goes down as whenever ive been talked through it by our IT guy its the server that he gets me to access.....There are shedualed to come through during the night but because it keeps bringing down my network i have to fix it first, then they come down during the day when the network is working again!!

K:)

I'll be honest, if they come down during the night and are not installed, but just sit there to wait, then it isn't the windows updates killing your server.

It might be that bringing larger amounts of data down causes the problem and so it manifests when windows comes down.

Try downloading the following somewhere and see if this kills the network link:

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/cdimage.ubuntu.com/cdimage/releases/9.04/release/ubuntu-9.04-dvd-i386.iso

To be fair if your server is running the network link and keeps falling over then it's time to get a decent 4 port wireless router, have that professionally configured and just have the server and your two machines sat behind it.

HTH

According to our IT bloke its a microsoft problem...when the update comes down it knocks out the network on the server...he says that MS know about it and dont have a patch thats works all the time yet...as far as i know we have a 4 point router professionaly installed by our IT crowd. "Itomic.ie" . Our server only serves three machines, a tower (my brothers) a laptop (Mine) and a printer. My laptop and printer are on the wireless network .

K:)

According to our IT bloke its a microsoft problem...when the update comes down it knocks out the network on the server...he says that MS know about it and dont have a patch thats works all the time yet...as far as i know we have a 4 point router professionaly installed by our IT crowd. "Itomic.ie" . Our server only serves three machines, a tower (my brothers) a laptop (Mine) and a printer. My laptop and printer are on the wireless network .

K:)

Sorry mate, but I have to call bullsh*t on your IT bloke.

Hundreds of companies worldwide do the update and pull updates down without problem.

If it only happens with a windows update, then it's a configuration issue, such as your IT man having the patches applied to your server.

When you say the wireless goes down do you mean the actual network does, or that the machine served can no longer see the network..

By the sounds of it you don't need that server, just a printer with a network port and a small NAS box. Much less to go wrong, less licences and no maintenance cost either.

Sorry mate, but I have to call bullsh*t on your IT bloke.

Hundreds of companies worldwide do the update and pull updates down without problem.

If it only happens with a windows update, then it's a configuration issue, such as your IT man having the patches applied to your server.

When you say the wireless goes down do you mean the actual network does, or that the machine served can no longer see the network..

By the sounds of it you don't need that server, just a printer with a network port and a small NAS box. Much less to go wrong, less licences and no maintenance cost either.

Both our machines loose the ability to conect to wireless internet...think it was a "ESPEC" or similar sounding file that didnt activate automatically last time and had to be reset.

We have the server to back up all the work files and so we can both access work files at the same time.

Its everytime a microsoft update happends.

K:)

Both our machines loose the ability to conect to wireless internet...think it was a "ESPEC" or similar sounding file that didnt activate automatically last time and had to be reset.

We have the server to back up all the work files and so we can both access work files at the same time.

Its everytime a microsoft update happends.

K:)

IPSEC is probably what you are referring to.

The whole "There's a problem with windows updates that microsoft know all about" is a load of crap , and it really does sound like an excuse trotted out by someone who can't be arsed to do any proper diagnostics and find the real cause.

I think you need to find a better IT guy.

What is the IPSEC? and what does it do? When he talked me through it because he couldnt get access that was the file that hadnt started!

K:)

He is proberbly using an IPSEC VPN to access your network from outside.

I agree with the comments about your IT bloke though. I look after a server farm that at the moment contains about 75 servers, and never have I seen an issue you describe on any of those servers. Microsoft test the updates before release on a variety of hardware platforms. If there were issues they would have been sorted by now by MS. it could be your IT guy has installed non standard device drivers and these are causing the server to crash, and not the MS updates at all.

I used to manage the backup solution for a fairly big Windows site, and auto updates used to drive us insane. The customer insisted of allowing all the servers to self update, and it would cause all kinds of backup issues. Maybe it was just an issue with Netbackup, but it left me very wary of unsupervised auto update

Phil.

IPSEC is probably what you are referring to.The whole "There's a problem with windows updates that microsoft know all about" is a load of crap , and it really does sound like an excuse trotted out by someone who can't be arsed to do any proper diagnostics and find the real cause.I think you need to find a better IT guy.

+1

If your server is falling over then sounds like a poor config. If it only happens when an update is sent out, and assuming you PAYG for support, then sounds like he's milking you for cash.

Are you sure you're not having your wifi router on the way out? Next time updates get pushed out by MS, try hardwiring your network and if you can, block your IT guy's remote account just for that update and see if your problems cease.

I'd put money on that they would.

Kit;

If you draw up what you've got as an MS paint or similar picture, then drop it over to me on a mail I'll happily redraw what I think you need so you can get somebody to do it properly.

I really doubt the need for the server and as said by others I do think the IT guy is milking it a bit.

Kit, what are you running as a server? If it's an Intel quad-core, running Vista, then there is a known issue with Vista SP1 that affects a significant minority of these machines. Yes, guys, I'm calling BS on your calls of BS, because unless you happen to be using one of this minority of machines, you can't even reproduce the problem!