Windows update not connecting

There seem to be widepsread issues with MS updates in general. Different issue but many cannot download defender definitions including myself. I am in UK and with BT. I think we can safely say it's an MS problem!

Just checked again this morning and it's still down?

Greetings, all,

I suddenly ran into the same problem yesterday, when my DNS settings (in Windows 10 Home x64 v1809, patched through early January) were set to select DNS servers automatically for both IPv4 and IPv6. I'm on Comcast, and keying in their specific DNS servers didn't solve the problem, nor did resetting the IP stacks, flushing DNS, rebooting then selecting Cloudflare's free servers. But repeating the process and switching to Google Public DNS servers allowed me to connect to Windows Update immediately, and these servers still work with WU this morning.

So it seems in my case to be an issue with Comcast's infrastructure somehow, since even their own DNS servers don't get through to Windows Update, and with at least some third-party DNS servers as well, but not with Google Public DNS.

Finally, I ran nslookup on all three sets of servers that I tried, and while all three used the same basic route to the windowsupdate server, both Comcast and Cloudflare had one extra step in the route (but not the same address for that extra step) that Google did not have. I guess that extra step may have caused the Comcast and Cloudflare lookups to get stuck.

Very puzzling...

Has anyone else that is having this issue run a trace route to see exactly where the connection is going awry? My old employer used to have really spotty connectivity at a certain branch office that was served by TimeWarner and TW support was telling the folks at that office there was nothing wrong. I discovered one of the TW hops was consistently going dark and until we could point out to TW support where it was, nothing was getting fixed.

Still down

To update everyone, I have just chatted with Comcast, and they are aware of the problem with both their servers and with Cloudflare servers, and are currently working on resolving the issue. The agent assured me that they will communicate with Microsoft if necessary to resolve this new DNS routing problem, which they think was introduced with the January Cumulative Update for Windows 10 that came out a few days ago (the one MS calls KB4476976).

For now, Google's DNS servers remain the only ones that I have found that will allow connections to Windows Update and Windows Store to complete successfully.

Hope this info helps...

Crashman: Great update with good info. I don't have Comcast as an ISP and I don't have KB4476976 installed, so I continue to have connection with WU every day. If Comcast has recognized the issue, the affected folks are likely on their way to a solution, hopefully before 02/12/10 rolls around.

(Hopefully) final report on the problem:

For about 4 hours now, I have successfully reached both Windows Update and Windows Store using Comcast's own DNS servers, as well as those of Cloudflare, Quad9, and DNS.Watch. It appears that Comcast has squashed this one, at least (as jamis suggests) until the next Windows Cumulative Update arrives to enrich our lives...

And thank you, jamis, for the kind words. As a former economics professor, I an not really accustomed to hearing those, and it took me a few minutes to recognize and process them!

All working for me in UK now!

Not for me it isn't!