Internet Service Providers in the UK and Belgium have been flooded with calls from disgruntled customers who have been prevented from accessing the Internet over the weekend. The problem has been attributed to a flawed update that was automatically installed by Microsoft.
The problems started last week with customers of ISPs BT, Plusnet, and TalkTalk experiencing intermittent Internet access, while Sky and Virgin Media customers also experienced problems on Sunday.
The connectivity problems were occurring regardless of the router and ISP, with the bug linked to a Windows 8 and Windows 10 update. Microsoft has confirmed that it is aware of the problem and is investigating; However, at this stage the cause of the problems are something of a mystery. It is unclear exactly which part of the Windows update was causing the problems, and if the Windows update was actually at fault.
While Windows 10 KB3201845 has been blamed, according to a statement issued by Microsoft, Windows users started experiencing problems last week before Microsoft had issued its Windows 8 and Windows 10 updates which points to another cause.
Affected users who have patched their computers – manually or automatically – experienced problems with their Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) clients. Affected computers were unable to obtain a LAN-side IP address, router address, or DNS settings from their router, preventing those devices from being able to access the Internet.
The issue could be resolved by configuring routers to use static IP addresses. Alternatively, affected users can open up a command prompt as an administrator and type in the following commands:
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log