Sophos and wireless network
Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:43 pm
Today I noticed another issue with Sophos - or rather the Sophos updater. I had installed the new security software more than a week ago on one ward's computer. I checked to see if the IDE's and the program had been updated. They had not.
The computer is connected to the internet over the building's wireless network. That creates the problem. When the computer boots up the wireless network takes a bit longer to get an IP address and open an internet connection than the Sophos updater takes to load and check for updates. Since the updater cannot connect to the server the updates are not downloaded and it waits 120 minutes to the next check for updates. The ward does not leave the computer on for that long and therefore Sophos does not get updated.
Sophos can be updated manually and that is what I did for this particular computer. But that is a work-around for an issue that may be corrected. I can see three possible solutions for computers connected wirelessly to the internet. The first is a delay after the computer boots before the updater checks the server for updates. For the computer I checked, a delay of 30 to 60 seconds may be adequate. The second is for the updater to continue checking for an internet connection a bit longer before timing out. The third is to shorten the 120 minute time to something shorter - say 90 minutes.
I can see problems for some people for all three solutions I suggested. But for now I have to instruct those units with wireless connections to manually start the update process.
The computer is connected to the internet over the building's wireless network. That creates the problem. When the computer boots up the wireless network takes a bit longer to get an IP address and open an internet connection than the Sophos updater takes to load and check for updates. Since the updater cannot connect to the server the updates are not downloaded and it waits 120 minutes to the next check for updates. The ward does not leave the computer on for that long and therefore Sophos does not get updated.
Sophos can be updated manually and that is what I did for this particular computer. But that is a work-around for an issue that may be corrected. I can see three possible solutions for computers connected wirelessly to the internet. The first is a delay after the computer boots before the updater checks the server for updates. For the computer I checked, a delay of 30 to 60 seconds may be adequate. The second is for the updater to continue checking for an internet connection a bit longer before timing out. The third is to shorten the 120 minute time to something shorter - say 90 minutes.
I can see problems for some people for all three solutions I suggested. But for now I have to instruct those units with wireless connections to manually start the update process.