MSoft's Patch 2/17-18/2013 took down my network

[unfaithfulsfan]

Y'all are all much sharper than I am, but just in case anyone else is having this issue, it's a simple fix. Last night I got my laptop to start copying some files over from my server in preparation for a 10 day trip down South for my Mom's 90th birthday. I had Internet access and I could see my server but I couldn't connect to it. Kept getting "Windows cannot connect the \\SERVER...." error.

I have a Cisco (Pronounced "Linksys") E2500 (I think) Wireless N router and just like my old Linksys router it has to be rebooted periodically, though that's not the usual alert I get. So I decided to reboot the server while I was at it. When I took it down, it started the usual "Configuring Updates" bit so I sat down to wait. Finally shut down and I unplugged the router and modem and waited a minute or two then powered everything back up. 30 minutes later the server came back up after configuring then removing the updates then restarting-configuring-failing-removing-restarting. Came back to my laptop, no server at all. By then it was after 1:30 am so I went to bed. Had a doctor appointment so around 2:00 pm today I got back to it. Looked at the updates, nothing out of the ordinary but when I went to my sharing settings, everything was turned off. Turned it all back like I had it and it's fine.

Stupid MSoft. Stupid me.

So, if your network suddenly went down there's the culprit. Don't know why the updates took so long to apply. I'm fairly certain I've rebooted my server PC since last Tuesday yet all the updates are dated 2/13/2013.

[egloeckle]

Not sure what OS it is, but this happens when certain updates fail and roll back. Has been this way as long as I care to remember. Better question is what is wrong with the machine that the updates failed?

Edit: I have pushed updates to about 25 XP / 7 machines over the last 2 days and didnt see this problem (updates were for the past month or so, stupid WSUS server died at one customer and for some reason our monitoring system didnt pick it up). Also happen to be starting a few server installs (2 x 2008R2 SP1 and 1x 2012 server) and didnt see the issue on either of those when updating. Guessing it had more to do with the failed update than anything like I mentioned above.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Whoops! Desktop OS is Win 7 Ultimate SP1. First time this has ever happened. Like I said, the router pukes 2 or 3 times a year but that manifests as no Internet on my laptop.

It has been a year since I replaced my primary drive on the desktop so it might be time to start from scratch again.

[egloeckle]

Not sure I would just start over in that case. A failed update can happen for many reasons. Anything in event viewer about the failed update? Check the windowsupdate.log file as well as there should be some hint as to what occurred there as well.

MS has gotten a lot better in recent times dealing with updates. Outside of a few updates for secondary apps they have not released an update that seriously broke things (that werent already in a bad state) in many years that I am aware of. Much different than the old days where a single update could brick an install and sometimes did. Did I really just say 'old days', f**k me Ive been doing this crap too long.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Haven't really had time to delve too deeply into it. Trying to get together for this pilgrimage down south. Had to catch up web site, research color laser printers for the village clerk's office for a state-funded 75% rebate, explain to my 89 yo mom that I AM coming down for her birthday, AND make sure the cat doesn't get locked in a closet.

Wife plays Pogo on both computers most of the time she's using them. Other than that, not much out of the ordinary that either of us do. Research, surfing, nothing "dangerous". Like I said, this is the first problem I've had with this. I thought it odd that all my sharing settings just arbitrarily changed after the update. That was the only thing that changed that I'm aware of.

[egloeckle]

Cat's do fine locked in a closet.. at least thats what I tell myself whenever our idiot closes the closet door on himself.