Why is MS so cheap regarding Windows Update?

[VirtualLarry]

Seriously. Would it hurt them to deploy a few more servers?

I've got 22 updates to apply. I've been waiting an hour for them to download (240MB). I'm on a 30Mbit internet connection. That's 3MB/sec, or 80 seconds. A little more than minute, if it were downloading full-out. But I watch the wifi connection in Task Manager in Win8.1 w/BING, and I see little tiny spats of recieved bytes. 8Kbit here, 6Kbit there, sometimes, you even see 3Mbit.

I have 802.11ac, and I can speedtest.net at my full internet bandwidth all day long over my wireless. I can get 14-15MB/sec to my gigabit NAS(es).

It's ridiculous that it should take that long to download updates. It's like the computer keeps trying the update servers, and they're full-up, and it has to wait and keep trying to even start downloading the updates.

 

[MustISO]

Gotta be something else going on. I did multiple systems last night and it took maybe 60 seconds to download all of the updates per machine.

Edit:
Just did a Windows 7 update (539MB) and it took 4 minutes to download the updates.

 

[Dahak]

Pipes must be full.

To be fair, I have seen oddness with windows updates on to exactly identical computers on my connection. one seemed to go faster than the other.
not sure why. Fresh installs right out of the box.

 

[PliotronX]

Is the hard drive churning a lot? Reason I ask is there have been a couple of cases where only a few hundred megs of updates on a system blows up to 3GB+ in the SoftwareDistribution folder and during the extraction process which happens during the "downloading" phase on wuapp, it appears like it takes forever to download even though the internet connection is not pegged at all.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Yes, it must be something else. It didn't take me longer than 5 minutes to download all of the updates either. The installation usually takes a lot longer than the download.

 

[corkyg]

No unforeseen delays here for 19 updates. The Malicious Software Removal tool takes time to "install" as it does a system scan.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Crack open windowsupdate.log in C:\Windows and see if there is any info in there. I don't think I've ever seen updates take that long to download.

 

[imagoon]

Just added Server 2012 R2 to WSUS and downloading its patch group at 11.5MB/s.

 

[vailr]

More likely, it's bogging down due to something local.
Someone's using Netflix to watch a movie, there's a bad WiFi connection, or something similar.
What does
http://speedtest.net/
report?

 

[VirtualLarry]

More likely, it's bogging down due to something local.
Someone's using Netflix to watch a movie, there's a bad WiFi connection, or something similar.
What does
http://speedtest.net/
report?

30Mbit/sec. I'm the only person here.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is the hard drive churning a lot? Reason I ask is there have been a couple of cases where only a few hundred megs of updates on a system blows up to 3GB+ in the SoftwareDistribution folder and during the extraction process which happens during the "downloading" phase on wuapp, it appears like it takes forever to download even though the internet connection is not pegged at all.

I didn't realize that extraction happens during the "downloading" phase. I thought that was strictly downloads. That's probably the reason, thanks.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I didn't realize that extraction happens during the "downloading" phase. I thought that was strictly downloads. That's probably the reason, thanks.

If it's a CBS update, some processing happens. What updates did you have applicable?

 

[imagoon]

Microsoft uses Akamai to deliver updates and utilizes their highest level of service utilizing thousands of servers around the globe. The only time I have issues is when I a) mess with DNS and geolocation gets hosed b) turn on the http inspect on the firewall for the WSUS server. Akamai and http inspect are certainly not friends when it comes to performance. Normally when I hear about update download issues I tell people to use a direct internet connection to test. Example: when I was diagnosing this I connected my laptop directly to the internet with a static public IP and updates worked perfectly so I knew the issue was the firewall or someplace past it. Bypass firewalls to test, bypass proxies or any other Internet interfering junk on the network. If it works the issue is local.

 

[Scarpozzi]

They likely use some kind of load balancing technology. If the application servers delivering content are failing and not responding correctly, it could cause lag or delays. Everyone may connect to one IP, but then get reverse-proxied to a different download/app server. Your best bet is to scrap the downloads and try back in a few hours. Hope that you land a different resource the next round.

 

[imagoon]

They likely use some kind of load balancing technology. If the application servers delivering content are failing and not responding correctly, it could cause lag or delays. Everyone may connect to one IP, but then get reverse-proxied to a different download/app server. Your best bet is to scrap the downloads and try back in a few hours. Hope that you land a different resource the next round.

It's not. It is something else. Read the post above yours.

 

[vailr]

Are you using your ISP's default DNS server?
Try going to your router settings and switch to OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220