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 HALP! Questions on Windows and Windows Server
 Macintosh integration
 Apple Software Update		  New Topic  Reply to Topic
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mitachu
Honorable But Hopeless Addict

United Kingdom
1947 Posts
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Posted - 12/16/2008 :  1:13:42 PM  Show Profile  Click to see mitachu's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Does anyone know the domain and/or hosts that the Software Update feature on Macs contact when someone does an update on their Mac?
Tim

DonJones
Here To Stay

USA
183 Posts
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Posted - 12/16/2008 :  1:19:04 PM  Show Profile  Visit DonJones's Homepage  Reply with Quote
It's in the Apple.com domain, but there's an array of hosts the computer chooses from - sort of client-side round-robin. I imagine they use some sort of load balancing on their end, but it's all kinda non-deterministic. You looking for firewall purposes or something?
- Don Jones
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mitachu
Honorable But Hopeless Addict

United Kingdom
1947 Posts
Status: offline
Posted - 12/16/2008 :  4:14:02 PM  Show Profile  Click to see mitachu's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Yeah kinda. Our Macs are having problems updating themselves through our Squid 3.0 (on FreeBSD) proxy server. It looks like it's the authentication that's not working for some reason. I would like to add the hosts that Software Update pulls from as proxy exceptions to Squid so they don't need authorisation to succeed. I'm happy allowing apple.com as an exception but I have already done that but to no avail. I also tried looking in the DNS lookup cache to see what was being accessed and the Macs did seem to be contacting akainet.net (or something like that) which looked promising but it's still not working after adding that domain to the exceptions as well.

The long term solution would be to get a Mac server installed and use their equivalent of WSUS but we don't have any Mac servers yet.
Tim
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DonJones
Here To Stay

USA
183 Posts
Status: offline
Posted - 12/16/2008 :  4:22:49 PM  Show Profile  Visit DonJones's Homepage  Reply with Quote
It'd be akamai - Apple (and lots of others) use those guys to provide bandwidth. Makes sense that they're hosting software updates with them, although usually they're just graphics and media.

No great solutions, unfortunately - those URLs are dynamic and they could be using several bandwidth hosts. I know they change them over time.

Hmm. Do you have SMS or SCCM by any chance? Or are you strictly using WSUS?
- Don Jones
Weekly PowerShell tips and other IT content
www.ConcentratedTech.com
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mitachu
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United Kingdom
1947 Posts
Status: offline
Posted - 12/16/2008 :  4:28:41 PM  Show Profile  Click to see mitachu's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Nothing as high tech as SMS or SCCM I'm afraid. We are predominantly a Windows shop so it's WSUS 3.
Tim
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mitachu
Honorable But Hopeless Addict

United Kingdom
1947 Posts
Status: offline
Posted - 12/16/2008 :  4:29:14 PM  Show Profile  Click to see mitachu's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
It appears that a newer version of the Software Update client is available that works properly with proxy authentication so I'll get that downloaded tomorrow and see if it helps.
Tim
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