The key decisions you need to make in terms of patching your small business network are around how much you want to do, how much reporting/verification you want and how reliable the technology is. In the small business space you’ve got a few options available to you, and as such you need to decide which one you wish to follow before implementing it. Do nothing and let … [Read more...]
Patching your Small Business Network
Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials and other small business networks all require patching to ensure that you stay up to date with the various security patches and therefore remain as secure as possible given the various attack vectors that hackers will take. The default settings on PCs and servers mean that they might patch dependant on what the users do with these … [Read more...]
You know your server is old when…
You try to run Windows Update and instead get redirected to this website Basically – your server has not been patched in so long, that Microsoft does not support it at all anymore and you need to go and install the most current service pack before you can begin the patching process. I saw this screen this weekend on an SBS 2003 server that was deployed on 2nd December … [Read more...]
How can I patch a computer without an Internet connection?
There is often the need to be able to patch a Windows system without an internet connection. Many reasons such as available download bandwidth and speed mean that we want to be able to patch a computer pretty quickly. Recently I had this scenario to handle in my own test lab. I found a cool utility called WSUS Offline Generator to enable me to download and … [Read more...]
How can I stop WSUS 3.0 from downloading updates?
Working on site this week with a client who has a 512kb link back to their headoffice. I deployed a new server which had WSUS configured to replicate content and approvals from a central server in headoffice. The problem was however that it tried to download 23GB of updates from the server during working hours and the bandwidth to headoffice became very … [Read more...]