Windows 10 BITS - Does it work???

[wyliec2]

I have 3 Windows 10 64-bit PC's in my home. One is a notebook only used for travel and is off most of the time.

I have a slow DSL internet connection (only service available) that at times only delivers .3 - .5 Mbps bandwidth.

My understanding of BITS is that one PC would download updates and then other compatible PCs on my home network would get updates from that PC instead of all 3 PCs doing independent downloads of Windows 10 updates.

BITS has been turned on for two desktops for a few weeks now. I just fired up my notebook after being off for 2 weeks. It seems to be doing a full download of updates from the internet instead of getting them from the local PCs. This is killing any interactive internet activity - for hours.

The concept of having only one PC download updates for the 3 Windows 10 64-bit machines makes great sense. Does this actually work? Is there a way to configure one PC to be the master download PC such that the others look to the master instead using the WAN internet and sucking up all bandwidth???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[ss202sl]

That's not what bits does, That is what WSUS does. WSUS is designed for many machines as it requires a server to download and store patches
Bits
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb968799(v=vs.85).aspx

WSUS
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb332157

 

[wyliec2]

Sorry for my lack of knowledge on this - I know enough to be dangerous...based on your input my fundamental question doesn't seem to involve BITS or WSUS. Thanks for your reply!!

I have been searching all over the web and getting bounced in many directions. Peer caching, WSUS (as you mentioned), group policy, etc.

With regard to internet/WAN speed issues, there are many links about going to Choose How Windows Receives Updates - turning off Delivery Optimization. Some of these seem to infer a relationship to BITS.

In my situation, Delivery Optimization should be a benefit. But I'm not seeing it seem to prevent different machines (same OS) from downloading their own updates from the internet. Is this supposed to work automatically - is there any configurability?

I have a Windows Server 2012 Essentials machine that I use for backup and media server - should I try to use WSUS??

Again, thanks for any info you can provide!!

 

[ss202sl]

WSUS is really useful when you have hundreds of computers. We use it where I work, and we push patches out to different departments(AD OU's) a different night of the week - so we don't flood the network pushing patches out to 3000 computers in a single night.

I wouldn't go through the hassle of setting it up just for a few machines.

 

[wyliec2]

You're right WSUS is overkill for my 3 Win 10 machines. I have 2 Win 7 machines but they're not an issue with large updates.

My notebook has been downloading from WAN the latest cumulative update - 2.5 hours and is at 53%.

It was tying up all of my bandwidth until I set a QoS bandwidth limit on my router.

My primary PC (always on) installed this update on Nov. 8. The notebook update would be so much more efficient if it was occurring over my LAN....sigh... I think that is what Delivery Optimization is supposed to do.

Doesn't appear to be working... It would be nice if you could designate which machine would cache the updates for the other machines.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion!!