Thanks for the quick reply, Colin.  I am aware of the "Second Tuesday"
updates.  Although I'm primarily a Mac guy, I have two Windows machines
I maintain here at home (three if you count VPC) and also about five XP
machines at work.  It seems as though I'm the "update guy" on all of
them.

Oddly enough, my VPC isn't alone with its update problems here at home.
My step-daughter has a Windows 2000 laptop that recently has refused to
update via the Microsoft Update web site.  Even more strange, my wife's
XP machine has no problem with the site.  We're all using the same home
network.  The Windows 2000 machine is like my VPC in that Automatic
Update works fine in the background.

None of this would really be a big deal if the updates weren't serious,
but often they are serious.  My wife and I surf cautiously, but there's
a 19 year old running the Windows 2000 machine.  ;-)

I've spent a great deal of time on this issue, and never have quite got
it straightened out.  I believe the MTU issue with the Belkin router is
probably what's causing it.  We've had certified Windows geniuses over
here working on it, and so far everyone has struck out.  Evidently,
we're limited as to where the Belkin can be set.  None of our changes
have ever worked.  We can switch over to a neighbor's wireless network
and make things work.  It's just that we've got to go outdoors to
connect to it; not a good solution.

As for the dll matter, I believe we've tried that.

Again, thanks for the reply.

In article <eSmkEIR0GHA.1...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>, Colin Barnhorst