windows update wont run on windows server 2003 sp1

I have a windows server 2003 sp1 and I cant run windows update. when I do I
get this msg almost emediately:

The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are
trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem.

and the options were just useless links.

I also tried logging into passport from the msdn subscriber download page
and the passport login page wont load. Is there a security setting I need
to make to allow these to work. I ran windows update when I first setup the
server so I know it did work at one time. I haven't touched the machine for
a long time and now this.

any ideas?

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l