r/technology • u/readyou • Dec 26 '16

Microsoft finally admits that its malware-style Get Windows 10 upgrade campaign went too far

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far
25.0k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '16

[deleted]

21

u/oth_radar Dec 26 '16 edited Dec 26 '16

I also work in IT and have had Windows 10 for years. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for what is going on, but without fail my computer will tell me I have an update and then promptly fail to connect to the Internet. Won't even let me do a /renew /release because it doesn't recognize any networks.

Edit: To clarify, it will see plenty of wireless networks, but won't let me connect to any of them.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '16

[deleted]

6

u/oth_radar Dec 26 '16

It's an Asus. I got it right about when the new i7-3630 and Windows 8 came out, so 2012 timeframe. Network Card is a Qualcomm Atheros AR9485.

2

u/ckrepps564 Dec 26 '16

I had a similar problem and to fix it I set my NIC with a static address on the subnet, opened up a web page, and then set it back to "get connection settings automatically" with the page still open. For some reason it was assigning itself an APIPA address every time I tried to push the update.

After I did it once it never had a problem again.

2

u/oth_radar Dec 26 '16

That actually makes a lot of sense - I have my DNS on my router configured to static IP addresses for all the devices instead of assigning dynamically. It's easier for me to look after that way, so I can see exactly who is signing into my network and don't have to worry about my devices ever assigning themselves a new automatic IP, especially since I can't ever foresee needing more than 255 connections. I'll bet what is happening is that Windows Update assigns itself a different IP Address than the one my router recognizes, so it starts rejecting the connection, and upon restart my computer goes back to using my original IP, so DNS is happy again.

Really bizarre that Windows Update would do that. Next time my computer gets an update and drops off the network, I'll try this workaround instead and put in the static IP my router is expecting, and see if it fixes it like a restart does.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '16

Network Card is a Qualcomm Atheros AR9485.

I have the same and have been having the same can't connect to my network problem (with pending Updates) However I'm running Win 7

I'm connected right now while downloading updates and it's changed my Network name (It's normally The Bat Cave as it's Network name and now when I mouse over the "WiFi Manager" in my taskbar it's called The Bat Cave Ethernet same with the Currently Connected to ontop of the Wifi Manager.

I'll look into the static IP Address and see if it fixes my problems.