You can obtain updates from the Microsoft Update Web site through synchronization. However, if the WSUS server is behind a proxy server, you must first configure the network connection so it can access the Internet.

Configuring Proxy Settings
By default, WSUS will be configured to obtain updates from Microsoft Update. If the server is behind a proxy server, you will need to use the WSUS console to configure the required proxy settings as outlined below.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, Administrative Tools, and click Microsoft Windows Server Update Services.
2. Click Options under the name of the WSUS server.
3. Click Update Source and Proxy Server. A dialog box will appear with two tabs: Update Source and Proxy Server.
4. From the Update Source tab, select where the server will obtain updates from.
5. Click the Proxy Server tab.
6. Click the Use a proxy server when synchronizing option and type in the proxy server name and port number.
7. If credentials are required to connect through the proxy server, click Use user credentials to connect to the proxy server option and specify the username and password the WSUS server will use.
8. Click OK to save the settings.

Note: You can configure the server to obtain updates from another WSUS server. In step 4 described above, you need to configure the specific port that the servers will communication on.

Configure Products and Classifications to Download
At this point you are ready to identify the products and the types of updates you want the WSUS server to download. For example, the WSUS server can be configured to only download updates in a specific language.

To configure which products and classifications the WSUS server should download during synchronizations:

1. Within the WSUS administrative console, click Options under the WSUS server, and click Products and Classifications. A dialog box will appear with two tabs: Products and Classifications
2. Click the Products tab and click the products that are pertinent to your network.
3. Click the Classifications tab.
4. Select the appropriate update classifications.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

Perform Synchronization
Once the WSUS server is able to access the Internet, you can obtain updates from the Microsoft Update Web site. As already mentioned, this is done through synchronization. You can initiate synchronization within the WSUS console. Select Synchronizations, right click and select the Synchronize Now option.

During this process, the WSUS server will connect to Microsoft Update to determine if there are any new updates available since the last synchronization took place. However, since the WSUS server is accessing Microsoft Update for the first time, all the updates will be available.

[tags]windows server, update services, microsoft[/tags]