Software and hardware updates are meant to fix things, so when you hit that update button, you expect issues to be resolved and new features to be implemented. Sometimes, however, updates can cause issues of their own, making the process of updating PCs and other gadgets a leap of faith at times.
Such was the case with a Windows 10 update released in early December that knocked out internet and local network connectivity for a number of users. Fortunately, Microsoft released a fix for the problem in the Patch Tuesday update on December 13, as Ars Technica reports.
The problem was first reported in a number of places; customers of some internet service providers told their ISPs they could no longer connect to their networks, and Microsoft’s own support community had a thread on the topic with over a hundred thousand views. In digging a little deeper into the problem, it appeared that the affected machines were unable to get their IP addressing information from their routers.
Microsoft’s fix, called KB3206632, was a part of its Patch Tuesday release of updates. A PC that can’t connect to the internet can’t download the update, of course, creating something of a vicious circle. A few methods for fixing the problem surfaced prior to the update, including running the Windows 10 “fix network connection issues” utility or simply rebooting the PC.
A more direct resolution to getting network connectivity running so that you can download the update was provided at On MSFT. Its technique is as follows:
- Open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking the Start button and selecting that option from the list.
- Enter “ipconfig /release” (without the quotes), then press the Enter key
- Enter “ipconfig /renew”, then press the Enter key
- Enter “Exit,” then press the Enter key
That should give your PC the network address information it needs, at which point you can connect to the internet and download Microsoft’s fix.
