Windows Updates mirror for ISPs

Question

I work in a ISP where bandwidth is limited. We want to provide our customers a mirror for windows updates, so we can save bandwidth and provide to our customers a faster connection.

How can we achieve this?

You should contact Microsoft and ask them, they may have something set up for this already. — Mark Allen, Dec 13 '10 at 19:17
Or better yet a CDN that hosts the files like Akamai. They are usually pretty keen on handing out their appliances. — Scott Pack, Dec 13 '10 at 19:21
I cannot emphasize this enough. You really should contact Microsoft for this type of question. — GregD, Dec 13 '10 at 21:45

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 13 '10 at 19:23

This is tricky. The only officially sanctioned method for doing this is WSUS, as has been mentioned several times now. In order to use that your clients would have to change their Windows Update data, which can be accomplished by installing the right registry keys but it requires positive action on the part of your clients.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '10 at 19:10

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In the Windows world, "mirrors" are typically accomplished utilizing Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). However, you may run into licensing issues if you want to provide that for free as part of your ISP services.

answered Dec 13 '10 at 19:10

Warner

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 19 '10 at 00:45

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I would install a transparent proxy and cache all downloaded binaries. This would require some sniffing to Windows Update used domains.

answered Dec 19 '10 at 00:45

Denis Nikolaenko

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '10 at 05:41

You may want to give squid a try, if you're not using it already. It's a data-caching application for commonly transferred data. It may not be able to cache Windows Updates, but it should help you save bandwidth, which seems to be your goal.

http://www.squid-cache.org/Intro/why.html

Windows Updates mirror for ISPs

4 Answers4