OT: AU/WU when does it check?

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Guest

The question has come up and been discussed in this group about when
Automatic Updates phones home to see if any updates are available. In that
light I thought the following would be of interest.

I have AU set to inform me when updates are available but to let me download
and install them myself.

I connect to the internet via modem [as I'm sure you all know ;) ]

I always allow the connection to idle for a few moments to see if anything
is happening in the background. I have the little icon in the system tray
that shows me back an forth transmissions thru the modem.

When I connected last night I noticed the light flashing busily and figured
AU was phoning home to see if any updates were available.

There were none of course and they light stopped.

Out of curiosity I decided to look at the windowsUpdate.log.
[C:\WINDOWS\windowsUpdate.log]

I found this near the end:
2007-08-17 23:13:02:781 1020 b40 AU AU setting next detection timeout to
2007-08-18 23:49:41

If I am reading this correctly AU will check for updates today [2007-08-18]
at 11:49pm.

So those of you wonder why AU has not informed you that there are WD updates
as early as some others you can look in here to see when your next scheduled
check is.

Caveat:
1. If your machine is turned off at the scheduled time, or not connected to
the internet, I would guess that it will check at the next time you are
connected to the net [that's a guess].

2. If you go to Windows/MS updates and check for updates on your own I would
guess that this would reset the clock as well.

3. I don't know how this might be effected by a busy system [e.g. you have
your computer calculating PI to the last digit while copying a CD and
downloading the entire IMDB movie database at the check time.

Just thought this might be of interest.

Tim
?:-)
Geek w/o Portfolio
 
Hi Tim,

I think that line only appear if you are connected with a modem, i use
the same update settings as you, but i am on broadband and that line is
never in my log.
Hope some other modem user can look for it! ;)

Regards >*< TOM >*<

Tim Clark schreef:
 
Alan D said:
I don't have one of those! How do I get one, Tim?

>
Click to expand...

First, are you using a modem? I've never seen one for other types of
connections.

If you are and it is not showing try this: [XP]

Start
Connect to
Show all connections
Right click the connection you use
Properties
toggle "Show icon in notification area when connected"
Click OK

[note that I'm sure there are other ways to get to the Network Connections
area but this is the one I know off the top of my head]

?:-)
Tim
 
Tim Clark said:
First, are you using a modem? I've never seen one for other types of
connections.
If you are and it is not showing try this: [XP]

Start
Connect to
Show all connections
Right click the connection you use
Properties
toggle "Show icon in notification area when connected"
Click OK
Click to expand...

Different route, but I got there and did it (calls itself an ethernet NIC -
not sure what that is?), and now I have a little icon showing my 'local area
connection' which flashes a bit now and then. Not sure how much use it will
be, but it livens things up a bit.

Thank you, Tim!
 
Alan said:
Not sure how much use it will
be, but it livens things up a bit.
Click to expand...

Alan,
For me the value is that first it allows me, by double clicking it, to
confirm my connection speed. On Patch Tuesday I want my "full" 48kbps :(
If the modem has had to fall back to 44 or 40 I will disconnect and retry
before attempting updates.

I also like to get "background" stuff out of the way before I get busy.

1. Let it check for Windows updates before I launch my browser or update my
AV.
2. When Firefox launches it sometimes needs to update it's Anti Phishing
database, which can take a minute or two.
3. It gives an indication as to whither or not a slow page is really done
loading or not.

Also, if I see it flashing when the I am just reading a webpage for a while
it can be an early indicator of something going on that I'm not aware of.
This is how I discovered that Adobe Acrobat and Java were phoning home and
checking for updates without my knowledge. I deactivated the auto update
function in both of them.

Tim
?:-)
--
World Domination
(\__/)(='.'=)(}><{)o(")_(")
Some Assembly Required

:

Tim Clark said:
First, are you using a modem? I've never seen one for other types of
connections.
If you are and it is not showing try this: [XP]

Start
Connect to
Show all connections
Right click the connection you use
Properties
toggle "Show icon in notification area when connected"
Click OK
Click to expand...

Different route, but I got there and did it (calls itself an ethernet NIC -
not sure what that is?), and now I have a little icon showing my 'local area
connection' which flashes a bit now and then. Not sure how much use it will
be, but it livens things up a bit.

Thank you, Tim!
Click to expand...
 
For me the value is that first it allows me, by double clicking it, to
confirm my connection speed.
Click to expand...

Ah! I hadn't tried that! I'd tried mouse-cursor-hovering, and
right-clicking, but I see this gives more info.

The icon is like two tiny monitor screens - sometimes only one lights,
sometimes both. Are they related to incoming and outgoing packets in some
way?
 
The icon is like two tiny monitor screens - sometimes only one lights,
sometimes both. Are they related to incoming and outgoing packets in some
way?
Click to expand...

Yes, left is your machine sending, right is the other machine sending [that
is by inference, it actually is your machine receiving :) ]

Both "monitors" lighting is a lot of back and forth, or simultaneous,
transmissions.

?:-)
Geek w/o Portfolio
 
Tim,

Checked my log, I use a dial-up connection too.

2007-08-22 01:46:22:812 860 438 AU #############
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU ## START ## AU: Search for updates
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU #########
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU # WARNING: Failed to find updates with
error code 8024001F
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU #########
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU ## END ## AU: Search for updates
[CallId = {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}]
2007-08-22 01:46:22:859 860 438 AU #############
2007-08-22 01:46:22:875 860 438 AU Network connection not detected,
subscribing for network reconnect for AU detection to happen

Not connected to the Internet at this time, so it rescheduled for another
time. So you can change the "that's a guess" in number 1 too confirmed.
 
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