Avoiding program updates while roaming in France?

1510 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Solwaybuggier, May 17, 2009

Solwaybuggier

Discussion Starter · May 16, 2009

Sorry if this topic has been raised before - I couldn't find it on searching, though.
We have a 3 PAYG dongle and are going to France next month. I know roaming charges are horrendous, but with a son on a round the world trip we do want to access our email while away. When we use the dongle in this country a lot of the bandwidth (& data allowance) seems to be taken up with program updates running in the background. I guess we'll need to keep antivirus signatures up to date, but I'd rather wait for Windows updates etc until we get back.

Question is - how do people go about stopping automatic updates running while roaming? I guess we could change Windows update preferences, but there are other programs that seem to need to update as well.

Any advice very welcome!

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madontour

· #2 · May 16, 2009

Hi,

I don't know of a one-fix-fits-all solution. However, almost all of the programs that do on-line updates allow you to set them to manual, or at least to ask before they actually do any serious downloading, and it's simply a case of configuring each application individually.

To try to keep the downloads under control we go to McDonalds once-a-week or so and for the price of a cup of coffee they let you use their fast wi-fi connection for free. We update our anti-virus and other software there so that we don't have to do it using the (expensive) mobile connection.

Mike

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Pudsey_Bear

· #3 · May 17, 2009

windows updates can be turned off in control panel > security updates, then turn it on when you return.

Simples

kev.

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maxautotrail

· #4 · May 17, 2009

Solwaybuggier said:
Sorry if this topic has been raised before - I couldn't find it on searching, though.
We have a 3 PAYG dongle and are going to France next month. I know roaming charges are horrendous, but with a son on a round the world trip we do want to access our email while away. When we use the dongle in this country a lot of the bandwidth (& data allowance) seems to be taken up with program updates running in the background. I guess we'll need to keep antivirus signatures up to date, but I'd rather wait for Windows updates etc until we get back.

Question is - how do people go about stopping automatic updates running while roaming? I guess we could change Windows update preferences, but there are other programs that seem to need to update as well.

Any advice very welcome!

How about using the firewall. I use Comodo and usually have it in learn mode. So any new program will ask to go to the internet. If I say yes I have the option of having the anser remembered or not. I can also turn off learn mode.

If you have a firewall can you turn it on/off like this? You would then be able to reject any program update requests as they try.

Keith

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Solwaybuggier

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 17, 2009

Thanks for very helpful replies.

Mike, yes - we'd thought of McDonalds - and also of some sites which offer free WiFi, although we'll mainly be on France Passion & aires. Doing manual updates there is a good idea though.

Kev, thanks - it's Windows updates which seem to be the biggest I get (I don't have iTunes on the netbook, which is a pain updating even on home desktop!)

Keith - we use ZoneAlarm, and I'll explore its settings before we go to see if I can get it to forget things I've told it to remember!

Ian

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