14 DAY TRIAL // A number of users in the United Kingdom are reporting Internet connectivity issues after installing updates provided by Microsoft for their Windows 8 and Windows 10 computers.
Reports that reached the web in the last 24 hours seem to point to problems experienced by Britons who are using BT and Plusnet works, and The Reg writes that one possible cause is an update messing with DHCP settings.
Computers running one of the two Windows versions and unable to connect to the Internet appear to fail to retrieve IP addresses and DNS servers from their routers.
Microsoft: We’re investigating
Microsoft has already confirmed that it’s investigating the issue and recommended users to simply reboot their computers because this could actually resolve connectivity problems. Of course, it doesn’t, but you can reboot the system anyway.
“We are looking into reports that some customers are experiencing difficulty connecting to the Internet. We recommend customers restart their PCs, and if needed, visit [this page],” Microsoft says.
Plusnet has also acknowledged the connectivity problems and explained that users need to switch to static IP and fixed DNS settings in order to be able to access the Internet. Information on how to do that for Plusnet customers is available here.
Unfortunately, it’s not yet known what update is causing all these problems, so users cannot remove it until Microsoft comes up with a fix - if this actually happens, of course. Patch Tuesday takes place next week, so there’s a good chance that Microsoft includes a workaround in this rollout.
For the moment, however, it’s not yet clear how widespread this problem actually is and we can’t tell for sure if it’s limited to just the United Kingdom or users in other countries are affected as well. Plusnet and BT have already confirmed these problems, but we’re keeping an eye out on reports to see if other companies reveal issues caused by OS updates.