Stampede for patches disrupts Microsoft update site

The crush of millions of Windows users trying to patch their computers overwhelmed Microsoft's update service for several hours after new security fixes were made available, the software giant acknowledged on Wednesday.

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Immediately after Tuesday's release of four patches that fixed a score of flaws in the company's operating system, traffic to Microsoft's Windows Update site spiked higher than seen during any previous update, reaching a sustained download rate of more then 50GB per second. Past patches have resulted in 2 million people visiting Microsoft's Windows Update site every hour to download fixes. This time, between 3 million and 4 million users came to the site.

As a result, many customers found that the scan didn't work properly and they were not able to download the latest patches.

"When the patches went out yesterday there was a significant wave," said Todd Weeks, director of operations for Microsoft.com. The increase led to delays for users who wanted to immediately download the latest patches from the service. "After about the first four hours, it was essentially resolved."

By Tuesday afternoon, the company had about doubled the ability of the servers to handle requests by adding more servers that had better processors, Weeks said. By Wednesday morning, the software giant's update servers were handling 4 million visitors every hour with no issues, he said.

The events present the latest problem for Microsoft as it continues its two-year-old Trustworthy Computing initiative. Although the software giant has taken major steps to alleviate security concerns, such as delaying its next version of Windows in order to divert developers to its Windows XP Service Pack 2 security update, Microsoft has also had to contend with releases of critical patches to deal with large virus epidemics among customers.

Nonprofit group Pathfinder International encountered delays in updating its Microsoft computers Wednesday, said Kevin Greene, senior network administrator for the group. Pathfinder has servers in the United States, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Pakistan, Yemen, Tanzania and Uganda. After one of those computers had been infected by the MSBlast worm last August, the group focused on applying patches as soon as possible.

"Microsoft's decision to release updates to 90 percent of the computers on the planet on the same day, coupled with its announced desire for us to all update on the same day, places a considerable burden on Microsoft to ensure it has the bandwidth, equipment and other infrastructure necessary to ensure that we can do that efficiently," Greene said. "My experience this morning, and in the last round of updates in February, indicates that the infrastructure is lacking."

Internet performance measurement service Netcraft noted the problems as well, stating: "A browser request through Internet Explorer eventually raises the site after an extended wait, and in some cases it is possible to successfully download and install updates over a broadband connection."

The flood of users led Microsoft to add the ability to regulate the rate at which Windows Update will try to download patches from the company's servers, Weeks said. The new feature will act as a spigot on the electronic data, evening out the demand for downloads.

The current problems were solved by throwing more computing power at the issue, said Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft's security program manager. He added that--on the positive side--the flood of users means more customers are worrying about security.

"People are now just waiting to get the update," he said. "We are pleased (that customers are more aware). We will do whatever it takes to provide these updates to our customers as demand increases."

When will they learn ?

Nonprofit group Pathfinder International encountered delays in updating its Microsoft computers Wednesday, said Kevin Greene, senior network administrator for the group.
...
"Microsoft's decision to release updates to 90 percent of the computers on the planet on the same day, coupled with its announced desire for us to all update on the same day, places a considerable burden on Microsoft to ensure it has the bandwidth, equipment and other infrastructure necessary to ensure that we can do that efficiently," Greene said. "My experience this morning, and in the last round of updates in February, indicates that the infrastructure is lacking."

Certain open-source OS distributions are already testing patch distribution using BitTorrent.

BitTorrent protocol spread the bandwidth load to the clients, while ensuring the integrity of the content, so a system which requires a lot of bandwidth may serve more clients than the size of its pipe.

But the last time I tested Microsoft's SUS (Software Update Services), it was still rather buggy. I wonder when we'll see things like this in it.

Let's see Microsoft's "innovation" here.

testing..

well, looks like even harmless HTML tags are not welcomed here :) pretty plain at the moment isn't it ?

sorry if my previous post is really hard to read.

Windows Update ON CD - FREE - worldwide delivery

Thought it'd be of interest to a lot of people:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

FYI, HTH.

[eaglesfly47]

SP2......road to a nightmare

I downloaded SP2 and ended up taking my CP to a tech to get rid of it. The update caused utter havoc on my system. I will go Netscape, AOL, whatever it takes so I never have to go this the SP2 horror again. The security is SO tight that one can't enjoy their own computer. I tried to change the security ratings. It was impossible. As soon as I would change it, five minutes later I would go back and SP2 would change it back to what "IT" wanted. I could not even to into Dummiers.com without SP2 blocking all the pictures. There was always nothing but a white box with a little red "x". Every web page I logged onto would require my password to view. A lot of web pages I tried to view (trustworthy, wholesome sites) would give me a white page stating I wasn't allowed to view it. I spent most of my computer time jumping through all SP2's time-consuming hoops to perform a simple task. I would constantly have to type in all my trust-worthy sites (URLs), only to go back to type another one and find SP2 had eliminated all the URLs I had typed in. NEVER again. Microsoft has become a computer cop. It won't let me download much of anything from it's critical updates. It states I need to download SP2 to get what I need.