I tried to get the latest updates several times without success

The automatic updates aren't happening and I got the "Installing updates"
popup.
The first time the "Preparing for download:" status bar when all the way to
the
end and then noting happened After quite some time I cancelled the updates.
I tried again about an hour later. Then and every time since I just get the
popup but the status bar remains blank until I press cancel. It momentarily
fills up then I get the updates failed message. I've tried unblocking popus
from the site. I've looked to see if mcafee firewall has blocked the site.
Nothing comes to mind.