[X-Unix] Software Update-low level how does it work?

[William H. Magill]

On 04 Apr, 2005, at 09:56, Russell McGaha wrote:

> Folks;
> 	First, PLEASE excuse the x-post for those of you who get both lists.
> 	Second, I've got some clients on a Government installation that are 
> having troubles getting Software Update to do it's stuff.  Their 
> networking department can 'see' packets going out to '17.250.248.95' 
> (resolves to swscan.apple.com), but a reply NEVER comes back, yet 
> anywhere EXCEPT on their network Software Update just 'does it's 
> thing' [I've left an update waiting on my powerbook, just to check 
> things].
> 	Does anyone know, what ports, protocols, etc. Software updates uses, 
> or just how it works?  Supposedly they are NOT blocking any ports or 
> going thru a proxy server that requires a username/password [the only 
> article I found at Apple that closely matches what's happening, 
> references this as a problem].
>
> THANKS for ANY help;
> Russell
>
> P.S. The error Software Update gives is "unable to connect to the 
> Internet, please check your network connection and try again"; all 
> other browsing works fine.

Can you IN FACT connect to the Internet?
Can you open a browser and have it work? [i.e. Can you download files 
from Apple's
http://www.apple.com/swupdates -- note that this is redirected to:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads// ?]

Do they really have a direct connection to the Internet or does all 
traffic on port 80 go to a local caching server?

See the Knowledge Base Articles:

"Well Known" TCP and UDP Ports Used By Apple Software Products

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106439

80 and 2068 are used by "World Wide Web, .Mac, Sherlock, QuickTime 
Installer, iTunes Music Store and Radio, Software Update, RAID Admin, 
Backup, iCal calendar publishing, Virex eUpdate, iPhoto HomePage 
publishing"

Mac OS 9: How to Troubleshoot Software Update Control Panel
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75281

Mac OS X: Troubleshooting Automatic Software Update
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106695



T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
# Beige G3 [Rev A motherboard - 300 MHz 768 Meg] OS X 10.2.8
# Flat-panel iMac (2.1) [800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg] OS X 10.3.8
# PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg] Tru64 5.1a
# XP1000  [Alpha 21264-3 (EV6) - 256 meg] FreeBSD 5.3
# XP1000  [Alpha 21264-A (EV 6.7) - 384 meg] FreeBSD 5.3
magill at mcgillsociety.org
magill at acm.org
magill at mac.com
whmagill at gmail.com