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?
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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....!
> 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....
Fast Startup Mode isn't correctly reseting the network adapters on resume?
Information about power management setting on a network adapter
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!
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OK reading the comment above I could be wrong but won't retract this as I hate those "deleted by author gaps"
> 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.
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.
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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.
@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.
>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
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.
> 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...)
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.
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.
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.
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> 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."
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.