Gaming Automatically Updating Software

[Devante]

Hello,

At my company, we used several different antivirus cleaners such as A-squared, Spybot, Malwarebytes, etc.

Basically what I want to do is set up a computer to automatically update the software as well as virus definitions every day, and then the employees will come everyday and copy the programs to their flash drives and put them on their individual PC's.

What is the best way to do this?
Is there some type of "automatic downloading" software?
I know I can schedule each program to update, but I don't want them installed on the main PC. I just want the files there as a source for everyone.

Similarly, I often get PC's in to fix, and when I'm done I like to do a Windows Update to make sure they're up to date.
Is there a way to automatically download the Windows Updates every night on one PC, then copy them to a flash drive when I want and use them to update the target PC?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[UltraMagnus]

if you are using windows, i seem to remember using a "breifcase" system. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307885 a few years ago

in my case, i used it to synchronise school coursework, but I see no reason that it should not work for what you want too

 

[Devante]

Thanks you, but I don't believe the briefcase system automatically downloads software and/or Windows Updates and makes them available for anyone else in the office to copy.

 

[Taza]

You're asking in the wrong place.

Heck, I'd fire you for asking stuff like that here if that was your job. lrn2centralize.

 

[FAST6191]

A bit late but oh well. The last thing you want is for every machine to update itself via the internet, once you get past 10 or so the bandwidth drain becomes horrific.

Updates: I would be careful when doing things. Windows updates have a long history of breaking things and when companies use multi thousand dollar software (which 90% of them that I visit do) they tend to get a bit irked if your updates break things, sometimes MS is to blame, sometimes sloppy coding is to blame, sometimes bad installation is to blame but either way they can not run the software (which their business may rely heavily upon).

None the less windows updates are best done offline at all points in time as far as I am concerned. The way MS likes is known as WSUS but forget that unless you want to set up windows server and a whole bunch of other pointless stuff so here is a thread I made discussing such things:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=130031
I use a patched version of SP2 myself (SP3 is a just a rollup of patches unlike say SP1 to SP2 but the few changes it does make are what causes issues), alas SP3 is not something I trust entirely.

AV/similar definitions are a different matter and depend on the software you use. Almost all should feature and offline updating method though. It is usually either an EXE file, a file associated with the app or a simple copy and paste job. If your apps lack this they are not worth your time.

From here (and you can use it for the method above if you wanted)
3 main ways

You say USB stick, I say network file share.

You can then either rig a batch file on each of the machines to download a certain file from the file share and run it or use remote access to do the job yourself. If you are especially bored then you can wander around and do it by hand (not something any IT person would usually be caught dead doing).

You want downloads have a look for the windows port of wget, it is a command line downloading app and very useful for this sort of thing. Do this for laptops likely to be offsite unless you want to rig up VPN.
Note the file is not necessarily going to be named the same each and every time so you may have to work something out.

 

[Taza]

Frankly, either network share - preferably with remote update functionality - or WSUS. Only exception being machines that move about a lot, if so required.

But if doing things like this is your job you should already have a better handle on it than a Linux-using geek who dabbles in system administration as a hobby. If you don't you're somewhere between hired for the wrong job and grossly incompetent.

Much more importantly, there should be no possible reason to ask about stuff like this on a gaming forum mainly frequented by clueless teenagers. Sheesh.

 

[FAST6191]

@Taza in many ways I agree and I also agree this is some truly basic stuff as far as system/network admin stuff goes.

On the other hand this is a twist on economics of scale, Devante seems to have a grasp of single machines and expanding this to multiple machines is not as elementary as we might think.
It could also be a small company and springing for a "proper" system admin is not an option, if tapping out a few lines helps reduce botnets and whatnot by having something resembling security I am all for it.

Regarding this forum there are more than a few full time IT people running around this place and I learned long ago never to underestimate people who are not "supposed" to know things.

 

[Devante]

To FAST6191
Thank you for the advice.
I'll look into WSUS as it may be the best solution for Windows Updates distribution.
I've had SP3 break a few computers now, so I stay away from it. Of course far more computers have benefited from it, but I don't want any more ruined installations.

To Taza
I tried to find some sort of point to either of your posts, but even your second post has nothing to offer other than somehow letting out some of your pent up aggression out in on the internet that you can't get out in real life.

I never said I was the system administrator at IBM's research and development department.
I know my share about computers, and I come here (among other places) to a community I've been a part of for years to learn something else.

This forums has become a great place to get answers for all types of questions people may have, from networking to sports. Don't assume anything about people. Ever. It can most certainly make you look bad, as it has here.

I'm not trying to argue with you. I'm merely trying to make the point that an attitude like that will only make you enemies, not to mention make you look bad everytime.

 

[Taza]

I don't think it makes me look bad when I say you're wildly incompetent to do system administration at least alone in a "company" context. And incompetent system admins are always annoying.

I know there's the occasional techie like fast, but there's at least ten times as much clueless guys who think they know something.

EDIT: And if it's your JOB to get them updated, no, you don't know your share. You know far less than you should.

 

[nin10do]

how big are these updates?

if the files are particularly large and need to go to many people you can post the link online and distribute one batch update file through a torrent client.

 

[FAST6191]

@nin10do most of my windows update isos clock around 700 megs. This is a bit over though as the individual updates are further reaching meaning you are probably looking at around 500 megs or less if you do it by the conventional auto updates method (which I dislike).
Even though it is smaller I am sure you can see what this way is better for multiple machines, you can also exercise a bit more control over the updates (see us bashing SP3 earlier).

AV stuff is usually under 10 megs per app but even then 20 machines all hammering an internet connection at once is still a lot of bandwidth if it happens at once.

 

[Devante]

I don't think it makes me look bad when I say you're wildly incompetent to do system administration at least alone in a "company" context. And incompetent system admins are always annoying.

I know there's the occasional techie like fast, but there's at least ten times as much clueless guys who think they know something.

EDIT: And if it's your JOB to get them updated, no, you don't know your share. You know far less than you should.

Believe me, it makes you look bad.

Nowhere did I say I was a system administrator.
Nowhere did I say it was my job to update anything, let alone do system administration (which, by context, is beyond mere updating Windows).

I said AT my job.
For your information, I run the aforementioned virus scans and updates on the computers in my office in much the way one would do it at home.
It doesn't take a system administrator to do those things, although it sounds like you may overly exemplify your own abilities perhaps.

I also do it successfully, as all it really requires is a few clicks.
All I was attempting to learn was if there was a more efficient method.

So, to conclude, more annoying than system administrators that pretend they know everything - of which I neither am a system administrator nor claim to know everything - is some forum troll whose only attempt at input is criticizing someone they don't even know with facts that are only assumed and therefore most likely wrong.

So what's worse, someone who is trying to learn, or someone that puts down people for trying to learn?

I invite you to take the last word.