back to article Botched Microsoft update knocks Windows 8, 10 PCs offline – regardless of ISP

A broken software update for Windows 8 and 10 is knackering internet connectivity for users of several ISPs in the UK, Europe and quite likely beyond. Virgin Media in Blighty is the latest provider to confirm the dodgy code is knocking a number of its customers offline. Proximus in Belgium also says a Windows 10 update is …

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  1. RogerT

    Is this a UK only problem?

    I'll happily admit that I live in a Microsoft free zone so this doesn't affect me but one thing interests me. Is this a UK only problem or are other countries affected as well?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is this a UK only problem?

      If it *is* a UK-only problem, then I would hope all the Bad Guys (TM) in the world are off this week.

      Because the implications would be there is a buried SPoF within the UKs telecoms infrastructure just waiting to be deliberately (and obscurely) exploited.

      Forget blowing up buses - if you really want to bring the UK down, stop people shopping online from 18th December.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is this a UK only problem?

        I'm interested in this too as I haven't seen or heard anything going on over here in the USA.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Childcatcher

          Re: Is this a UK only problem?

          Pure speculation on my part but Windows updates do not happen all at once across the world, so it is possible that this may happen later for others.

          It would be nice if someone would get Wireshark and the logs out and do some bloody diagnostics to find out where the problem really lies. It's not rocket science - you can't see network traffic.

          1. Adam JC

            Re: Is this a UK only problem?

            Wireshark shows no DHCP requests from the PC's in question, the offer is there but no ACK.

        2. StuartMil

          Re: Is this a UK only problem?

          Seeing the same symptoms on Time Warner in OH and the same helldesk advice of "turn it off an on again". Seems to work for them.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is this a UK only problem?

          We have the same issue internally in BoA throughout all of the USA.

    2. tmax

      Re: Is this a UK only problem?

      Same at Proximus Belgium: https://www.proximus.be/support/en/id_zwpr_support/personal/support.html

      1. m0rt

        Re: Is this a UK only problem?

        My Neighbour had this last week. My older desktop, connected to the superhub with an ethernet cable. Wouldn't get through to the internet either with Wifi or ethernet, yet my phone could connect to the router and work. I couldn't work out what the hell was going on, it just would *not* connect to the internet. In the end I clicked on the reset network connections option in the network settings tile abomination.* That sorted it.

        *I don't know windows 10 very well, I tend to avoid Windows these days. So I did just worked through the thing logically and hit upon that as working.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Is this a UK only problem?

          Pure speculation on my part but Windows updates do not happen all at once across the world, so it is possible that this may happen later for others.

          "later for others"

          There is a Microsoft theme song in there.

          1. Dazed and Confused
            Trollface

            Re:There is a Microsoft theme song in there.

            It goes

            Share and enjoy...

            1. ecadre

              Re: Re:There is a Microsoft theme song in there.

              ... unshare and despair

            2. Colin Ritchie
              Windows

              Re: Re:There is a Microsoft theme song in there.

              https://youtu.be/fjXswmoZ2HQ

        2. Wayland
          Pint

          Re: Is this a UK only problem?

          I would have solved it that way but fortunately I read the Reg article and simply entered the two commands which brought the DHCP addresses back. I owe the Reg a pint.

    3. Willyn

      Re: Is this a UK only problem?

      I am using Windows 7 on satellite in Spain and for sometime now my internet drops out and I have not been able to find any cause on my computer.

      1. kkanalz

        Re: Is this a UK only problem?

        If your satellite Internet provider is Hughes Net, then I can almost GUARANTEE that the problem is with HughesNet! I wrestled with those guys for three years before I was able to find a local alternative that was NOT satellite based.

    4. Rob Daglish

      Re: Is this a UK only problem?

      Did you miss the bit in the article that says:

      " Proximus in Belgium also says a Windows 10 update is breaking network access" ?

      Admittedly, it was only one line...

    5. Linker3000

      Re: Is this a UK only problem?

      Dunno, but since I just lost Internet connectivity trying to check an email before I flew out of the house, I did a quick check of the network settings and the first entry in my DNS list was an IPV6 address and since my router does not have IPV6 turned on, I tried disabling the IPV6 protocol on my wifi adaptor and I was back online with only the expected two IPV4 DNS addresses showing.

      Maybe something's not timing out as it should??

      Just a thought - gotta dash....!

  2. Dwarf
    Joke

    Before anyone else says it

    It's because of Brexit ....

    1. StaudN
      Devil

      Re: Before anyone else says it

      How about because of the IP bill?.....

      1. phuzz Silver badge
        Gimp

        Re: Before anyone else says it

        If your computer is unable to get an IP address, then the government can't snoop on it, this is actually Microsoft's way of saving us from the Snooper's Charter.

    2. MNGrrrl

      Re: Before anyone else says it

      > It's because of Brexit ....

      Admittedly I haven't followed brexit beyond what the BBC has reported on it, but I was under the impression the UK wanted to divorce itself from the European Union, not the entire human race. Not that I would blame them, we are a sorry lot right now. I'm pretty sure miserable Britain wants to suffer like the rest of us with its modern conveniences. Though there is a degree of dramatic irony in being so accustomed to having to "Turn it off and back on again" to fix a problem that we're now trying that with entire countries....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Before anyone else says it

        Brexit is to the BBC what welfare cheats are to the Daily Mail

    3. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Before anyone else says it

      No, in the US, its Bush's fault if you are a Democrat, and it's Obama's fault if you are a Republican.

      And it's Comey & the Russians fault if you worked on Hillary's campaign.

  3. Alister

    Unwise...

    The Register has contacted Microsoft for an update.

    I don't think that's a good idea, the last thing you want is another Microsoft Update...

    :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: Unwise...

      >I don't think that's a good idea, the last thing you want is another Microsoft Update...

      Haha

      Wins comment of the week and it's only Monday.

      1. VinceH
        Thumb Up

        Re: Unwise...

        Only of the week?

        I did a proper LOL. A proper one, with the out loud bit.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Caused by power management setting on network adapter

    Fast Startup Mode isn't correctly reseting the network adapters on resume?

    Information about power management setting on a network adapter

    1. dkjd

      Re: Caused by power management setting on network adapter

      No, that does not fix it

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Plusnet are a bit pushed right now

    Work college needed to sort a service upgrade/move issue and just could not get past the first "Home or Business prompt" for hours.

    Still think it is IPv6 related, but we are not meant to question that, it's the modern way don't you know, old school "leave my f'ing LAN addresses alone" attitude is so last decade!

    ---

    OK reading the comment above I could be wrong but won't retract this as I hate those "deleted by author gaps"

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Plusnet are a bit pushed right now

      Still think it is IPv6 related

      Can't be otherwise Plusnet customers would be immune due to it's inability/lack of interest in rolling it out.

      1. Dazed and Confused

        Re: Plusnet are a bit pushed right now

        > Still think it is IPv6 related

        Hardly, It's been taking out my wife's W10 PC most of last week and that is getting it's DHCP from my CentOS server. The server is sending DHCP responses and they aren't being acted upon. I'm only handing out IPv4 addresses.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Plusnet are a bit pushed right now

          Exactly - If the MS update (rein)forces v6 as the priority protocol and deprecates v4 do you not see how that could be a problem where v6 is not supported or served?

          That's what I obviously failed to get across, not having a v6 route or address may stop the thing working if that is what it expects to use. If I leave the default configuration on 7 or later I will often see delays as it tries to get/use v6 addresses for resources before falling back to v4.

          I just disable v6 until there is a pressing reason to do otherwise, when I cannot disable v6 it better be fully supported on the route.

        2. Wayland

          Re: Plusnet are a bit pushed right now

          IPv6 may have replaced IPv4 already. Except my router only serves IPv4.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. MNGrrrl
    Facepalm

    Only Britain? Short answer: No.

    Guys, El Reg is located in Britain*, as is most of their readership. However, the hardware that this is affecting is everywhere. It's happening in Brazil, the United States...in lots of places. And it's a supreme irony that Windows 10 requires you to be online to use it and yet once again here we are watching it furiously stomping on its own dick. I have lost count at how many problems Microsoft's new-found love for 'agile' has spawned. If computers were people we'd have convened at the Hauge by now and put Microsoft on trial for genocide.

    What other branch of engineering allows so many to believe "Build Now, Plan Later" is a recipe for anything but disaster? Not that it's just Microsoft. My entire industry is just one glorious failure after another, set to hip commercials showing off the 'cutting edge' of technology. The new iThing 9000: Dance madly with us on the lip of the volcano! And everytime someone falls into the molten glory hole of terrible engineering practices, we just accept this, like it's normal or something.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

      Most of the post is great, but:

      And it's a supreme irony that Windows 10 requires you to be online to use it

      No it doesn't. Can we stop this rubbish please.

      1. MNGrrrl

        Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

        > No it doesn't. Can we stop this rubbish please.

        Yeah, no idea where people get this idea from... Let's just google "Windows 10 requirements"

        Info box at the top of the page, above the results: "A Microsoft account and Internet access."

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

          Would that be the box thats from a 3rd party site, about the windows Technical Preview, about upgrades written "MARCH 18, 2015 6:50 AM"

          Install from ISO

          Activate.

          Choose Phone option,

          Done.

          1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

            > Would that be the box thats from a 3rd party site, about the windows Technical Preview, about upgrades written "MARCH 18, 2015 6:50 AM"

            So we don't need fake news. Out of date information is sufficient to flaw El Reg's readers Microsoft haters.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

              @Brewster's Angle Grinder

              'Out of date information is sufficient to flaw El Reg's readers Microsoft haters.'

              I'm not an MS hater, but have become more and more frustrated/pissed-off/angry with what MS have done to what was generally a very good operating system. Instead of giving us a consistent and logical upgrade to Windows 7, they forced an ugly and non-intuitive UI on us with Windows 8. Then after an almost universal 'WTF?' from users, they gave us 8.1 which still didn't fix the fundamental UI issues. Then they went all 'as-a-service' with 10, forced almost everyone to upgrade to 10 whether they wanted to or not, gave us a still broken UI with forced updates we have no control over, rampant telemetry which is almost impossible to suppress, common networking issues (seriously, how do you break the implementation of a standard network protocol which has been used by all previous versions of the same OS for almost 20 years?) as well as other shit.

              MS could have avoided all this quite easily by giving users what they actually needed in the OS, rather than forcing illogical and unnecessary changes on them for no good reason. Unfortunately, for the majority of those same users there is no alternative available to them because they are not technically minded and have only ever used Windows, so they will just suck it up and muddle through regardless even if they now detest using Windows.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

                >MS could have avoided all this quite easily by giving users what they actually needed in the OS, >rather than forcing illogical and unnecessary changes on them for no good reason. Unfortunately, for >the majority of those same users there is no alternative available to them because they are not >technically minded and have only ever used Windows, so they will just suck it up and muddle >through regardless even if they now detest using Windows.

                I thought most of that lot had splashed out on Macs, or given up on desktop computing altogether

              2. Wayland

                Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

                Microsoft is a landlord who simply wants you to move out. I was able to take most of my stuff with me but I had to leave behind my beloved MS Access. Moving away from MS is the end of an era and although I am a little sad I have made a lovely new home in Mint Linux. I am encouraging my Windows customers to come to Linux too.

            2. Kiwi
              Linux

              Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

              > Would that be the box thats from a 3rd party site, about the windows Technical Preview, about upgrades written "MARCH 18, 2015 6:50 AM"

              So we don't need fake news. Out of date information is sufficient to flaw El Reg's readers Microsoft haters.

              Oh really?

              https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msnz/en_NZ/pdp/Windows-10-Home/productID.320414600

              Requirements

              Required Processor : 1 GHz processor or faster

              Required Memory : 1 GB RAM for 32-bit; 2 GB for 64-bit

              [..]

              Required connectivity : Internet access (fees may apply)

              5th item down on the list. As appears when visiting microsoft.com from NZ, then looking at the "learn more about windows 10" link (under the left hand pic in the second row of ads), then to "Shop now" (way down under a massive wankfest of "how great this shitpile is", then a second "shop now" button (coz, like, we're MS and we're to fucked in the head to realise you've already chosen to go to our shop and don't really need to chose to go there again), then Windows 10, then Windows 10 home, then "requirements" (I have adblock+ and NoScript in Firefox on Mint 17.1. APB was untouched, but I turned on "temporarily allow ms.com, msstore.com and digitalriver", left a lot of other scripts (like a hell of a lot of 3rd party scripts - MS to stupid to even write their own website and have to rely very heavily on others?) off)

              Looks like current information, nothing outdated about it. If it is outdated, then MS needs to fix their shop page. They also got the price wrong - "NZ$199.00" - should be "you'd be an idiot to pay even 1cent for this when so much better, non-slurping OS's are available completely free"

              El Reg, can we have a flying pig icon, text something like "the OP is telling porkies" (or "the OP works for MS or somesuch will do).

              (Gotta remember to use more rat poison when feeding these MS trolls...)

              1. Sparkypatrick

                Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

                That's to purchase a download only version. I'm not sure how you imagine you would be able to achieve that without internet access.

                Windows 10 will function perfectly well without an internet connection - albeit with very limited utility, in this day and age. And by 'perfectly well', I mean with a dog's dinner of a Start menu.

                1. Kiwi

                  Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

                  That's to purchase a download only version. I'm not sure how you imagine you would be able to achieve that without internet access.

                  Really?

                  So why, then, on https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-10-Home/productID.319937100, with the USB flash drive option checked, does it still state you need an internet connection to run Win10?

                  You don't normally download USB drives. At least, I haven't yet found any method to download them.

                  And why would you need 20g of HDD space to "purchase a download only version"? I know MS stuff is a waste of space but surely even they don't require 20G to dl a <4g file?

                  How about the "1 GHz processor or faster", or the "1 GB RAM for 32-bit; 2 GB for 64-bit"? Is there something about downloading from MS that uses a lot of more CPU cycles than normal? (AV going into overload or something?). And how does downloading a 64bit file require twice the ram of downloading a 32bit file? What about downloading txt files? Do they only require a few KB of ram? What if I was do download a 4K 3D video file to copy to USB and play on my TV, would I need 20G of ram? How does that work?

                  And how about the "DirectX® 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver" - How do you need something like that to "purchase a download only version"? Or the "Microsoft account required for some features. Watching DVDs requires separate playback software"? Surely purchasing a USB stick with software on it does not somehow require separate software to view DVD's (aside from whatever else you have on your system).

                  MS's own website says you need an internet connection to run 10 purchased on a USB stick. Forgive me for taking MS at their word1 about minimum specs as published on their website. If the specs are wrong, MS needs to correct their website.

                  1 No, I wouldn't ever take them at their word... I'm quite sane, my mother had me tested.

        2. Diodelogic

          Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

          MSGrrrrl: I saw this when I Googled it: "It's thus worth adding that the Windows 10 technical preview has these requirements". The articles below this say that the Windows Acccount and Internet Connection were not required in the release version of Windows 10.

          Slight confusion, perhaps not really Microsoft's fault, but the user's for not reading the first article properly or completely.

        3. This post has been deleted by its author

        4. KRC

          Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

          > Info box at the top of the page, above the results: "A Microsoft account and Internet access."

          Which comes from a 3rd party site referring to a technical preview. This is where you should be looking: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-specifications

          And the only reference to Internet access is this;

          "An internet connection is required to perform the upgrade. Windows 10 is a large file – about 3 GB – and Internet access (ISP) fees might apply."

          1. Danny 14

            Re: Only Britain? Short answer: No.

            Thats funny. Our W10 LTSB digital signs arent even on the network and they seem to cope just fine.

            Pedantic yes. We havent been hit by this bug on or network pcs but we do use 2k12r2 dhcp servers so perhaps they didnt bork their own DHCP. We use fast boot too. Our normal users cant change any network settings.

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