Microsoft Blames ISPs For Last Week's Windows Update Connectivity Issues In Windows 10

by Brandon Hill — Tuesday, February 05, 2019, 10:09 AM EDT

Late last week, we reported on an issue that caused many people trying to reach the Windows Update server within Windows 10 to be greeted with an error message. While many people immediately placed the blame on Microsoft -- and how could we blame them given the company's continued troubles with Windows updates -- the eventual solution that worked for many involved changing DNS providers.

Today, Microsoft is providing some clarification for what went wrong and is absolving itself of any blame in the situation. Early this morning, Microsoft posted the following statement to its Windows Support page:

The Windows Update service was impacted by a data corruption issue in an external DNS service provider global outage on January 29, 2019. The issue was resolved on the same day and Windows Update is now operating normally, but a few customers have continued to report issues connecting to the Windows Update service. We expect these issues will go away as downstream DNS servers are updated with the corrected Windows Update DNS entries.

By Microsoft's own account, the issue that caused initial service interruptions was fixed relatively quickly. In fact, most Comcast users reported that they were able to hit the Windows Update server normally by Friday. However, customers using UK's BT Broadband were still experiencing connectivity issues throughout the weekend.

For anyone still having issues, we suggest that you check out our guide for switching your ISP-supplied DNS to a publicly available alternative from Google or Cloudflare. This would at least provide a temporary solution until your ISP’s DNS servers are completely flushed.

Windows Update will be primary delivery method for Microsoft's next big Windows 10 release: the April 2019 Update.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows 10, (nasdaq:msft), windows update

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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