Entire office (45pcs) getting 80246002 error for all attempted upd

Every computer in my office has lost the ability to use Windows Update. They
are all running Windows XP, some with SP2 and some without. The problem began
about two weeks ago (late September), shortly after Microsoft made a lot of
changes to the Windows Update site. Any attempted updates (security patches,
drivers, media player 10) fail immediately with the error code 80246002.

It seems like a firewall issue but we have not made any changes to the
firewall for over a month. It is a Symantec 5400 and has ports 80/443 open as
well as the std email and messenger ports.

I have tried doing updates on fresh installs of Windows XP w/ SP1 as well
(no domain configuration) but receive the same error. This is a BIG problem
for our office and we would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.

Additional info - I setup a system using Windows 2000 and it works fine.
Since Windows 2000 uses v.4 of Windows Update and Windows XP uses v.5, the
difference probably has to do with something that changed in v.5. I have
tried about all I can think of, including calling Symantec for thoughts on
the firewall configuration. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

"Travis" wrote:

> Every computer in my office has lost the ability to use Windows Update. They
> are all running Windows XP, some with SP2 and some without. The problem began
> about two weeks ago (late September), shortly after Microsoft made a lot of
> changes to the Windows Update site. Any attempted updates (security patches,
> drivers, media player 10) fail immediately with the error code 80246002.
>
> It seems like a firewall issue but we have not made any changes to the
> firewall for over a month. It is a Symantec 5400 and has ports 80/443 open as
> well as the std email and messenger ports.
>
> I have tried doing updates on fresh installs of Windows XP w/ SP1 as well
> (no domain configuration) but receive the same error. This is a BIG problem
> for our office and we would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.

Did you resolve this or is it till a problwm, I am wondering if it is an SP 2
issue. I am also running Norton/Symantec firewall software

"Travis" wrote:

> Additional info - I setup a system using Windows 2000 and it works fine.
> Since Windows 2000 uses v.4 of Windows Update and Windows XP uses v.5, the
> difference probably has to do with something that changed in v.5. I have
> tried about all I can think of, including calling Symantec for thoughts on
> the firewall configuration. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>
> "Travis" wrote:
>
> > Every computer in my office has lost the ability to use Windows Update. They
> > are all running Windows XP, some with SP2 and some without. The problem began
> > about two weeks ago (late September), shortly after Microsoft made a lot of
> > changes to the Windows Update site. Any attempted updates (security patches,
> > drivers, media player 10) fail immediately with the error code 80246002.
> >
> > It seems like a firewall issue but we have not made any changes to the
> > firewall for over a month. It is a Symantec 5400 and has ports 80/443 open as
> > well as the std email and messenger ports.
> >
> > I have tried doing updates on fresh installs of Windows XP w/ SP1 as well
> > (no domain configuration) but receive the same error. This is a BIG problem
> > for our office and we would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.