Windows 10 Update Continues Having Issues After DNS Fixes
Written by Lawrence Abrams / Courtesy of Bleeping Computer
Windows 10 users continue to have problems performing Windows Update even after Microsoft reportedly has fixed the problem that users were having last week.
Last week we reported that users were complaining that they when they tried to perform a Windows Update, they were greeted with the message “We couldn’t connect to the update service. We’ll try again later, or you can check now. If it still doesn’t work, make sure you’re connected to the Internet.”
It was discovered that you could bypass this error and get Windows Update working again by changing your DNS servers to another service like Google’s 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1.
Since changing the DNS servers was able to get Windows Update working again implied that this could be an issue with the ISP’s DNS services. Strangely, though, this issue affected ISPs throughout the world including BT in the UK, Comcast in the United States, and other ISPs in Japan, and elsewhere.
As it affected so many different Internet service providers throughout the world, it is possible that Microsoft pushed out a bad DNS record that got cached in various ISPs DNS servers for too long. Unfortunately, these are all guesses at this point.
Soon after, a source familiar with the matter told BleepingComputer that the issue was on Microsoft’s end and had since been resolved.
Unfortunately, this is not the case, and users are still reporting on Reddit, in our article, and elsewhere that they are unable to connect to Windows Update and continue to receive the error as shown above.
Microsoft has also updated their Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 update history to include some very basic information about this issue.
“We are aware of a service side issue where some customers are still unable to connect or download updates from the Windows Update service,” stated Microsoft’s support article. “We are actively investigating this issue. Thank you for your patience.”
The recommended fix is to still change your computer’s DNS servers to either 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as described in our original article. Strangely for some even after changing their DNS to a different server they are still unable to perform an update on their normal ethernet adapter, but could via WiFi. Others have reported that switching the DNS doesn’t help them at all.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is not offering any other information at this point and when I reached out to them, was just referred to their support article. I have requested more information, and if I receive any, will be sure to update this article.
Read the original article over at BleepingComputer.com.
