Hi Virginia, Fred Langa discusses this very problem in today's newsletter. Although there are not a lot of options for you, at least there are some. To read the entire newsletter go to: http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-09-18.htm
But here's the pertinent info: There's no magic answer, but this might help: Don't live-install the patches; do a simple download first, and install the patches later, offline; and pool your downloads with others. Taking those in reverse order: It's unlikely that you're the only person in your area facing download problems. If you can find any other users--- even one--- and pool your downloads, you can cut your connection time and costs substantially. It might be a friend, neighbor, or a formal users' group; but your download costs will be cut by however many users are in the download pool: Two people will each pay half of what they otherwise would; four people will each pay one-fourth of what they otherwise would; etc. The trick is to download the update files ONCE, saving them to a PC for later sharing and re-use; rather than doing a live, online update for each machine in turn. You can do this with the information in "Saving Updates To Disk" http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-17.htm#5 or "Save Your Updates Offline" http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-20.htm#2 For example, even if you have ONE friend in a similar situation, you can use the technique above to download the patches and save them on one of your PCs for later use by both of you. By splitting the cost of the phone call, you'll each end up spending only half what you otherwise would have had to. With four friends, the cost is one-fourth; with a user group with many members, the per-person cost can be truly trivial. Saving the patches locally not only means you have them to share with others, but also means you'll have them in the future, should you need to re-patch! Good Luck, Marlene -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Virginia Da Costa Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: PCWorks: XP Updates problem Having acquired two new computers pre-loaded with Windows XP Home (laptop for me, desktop for my son & daughter-in-law), I now have the problem of downloading the XP critical updates. I was HORRIFIED to find that I need 28 "critical" updates and umpteen other non-critical ones -- so many megabytes that I gave up counting the total. With only a dial-up connection, this is going to take a month of Sundays. Last night I tried downloading some updates, and after an hour the connection got broken and all was lost, so I am back to square one. What is the best way to go about this? Is it possible for me to SAVE the files on to one computer (at the moment there seems no download and save option -- only an install option), and transfer them for installation on to the other computer either via CD or flash memory stick? Are all of the critical updates really "critical". I know Clint always warns us to be wary of installing Microsoft's updates, but having once had my computer hacked into over a whole weekend, with my password stolen and no end of damage done, I am paranoid about security. I run Zone Alarm Pro on all my machines and update my v*rus defs. on a daily basis. I dread the thought of having to download such a vast quantity of megabytes on a slow dial-up connection (living in the country, we are too far away to have ADSL). Any suggestions? Virginia Da Costa [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
