Network settings and what-nots in Win2000

I have just started using Win2000 Pro. from Win98, and although the stability is amazing, I am finding the greater security features, and complex network settings to be kind of a hassle.

I wanted to download Win2000 Service Pack 3, but I cannot use Windows Update because they Win2000 says the admin. has disallowed it, but the strange thing is I am the admin, and I never did such a thing.
I went Microsoft's Windows Update site manualy, by typing, windowsupadate.microsoft.com, in my browser, and soon I got a message:

Network policy settings prevent you from using Windows Update to download and install updates on your computer.

So my question is, how do I configure my network policies to allow me to use Windows Update? If this is not possible, how can I get Win2000 Service Pack 3? (Not from microsoft.com, but from a third party)

Also, a minor question is, how do I configure my network settings to allow the maximum freedom; so I won't encounter any these kinds of network restrictions, or any related incident.

I greatly appreciate, and want to thank in advance all who spent time, and effort in answering my question.

roygabv

 

If you are running an account that is part of the administrators group on the PC, take ownership of the root of the system drive (probably C:\) and that should take care of things for you.

For specifics on doing this, start~help~ and search for take ownership. You will get a good step-by-step instruction.

 

I did took ownership of c:\ and even changed the permission to allow read, write, copy to be inherited to all files and folders on c:, but it still does not work.

On top of this, I d/l the full version of Win2000 SP 3, ran it, and it stopped, saying "c:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msnimn.exe is running or another application is using it, but I had no applications running at the time!

I am really confused, and quite frustrated, someone please help.

 

try this...

(DO THIS AS ADMINISTRATOR) go to the start button and then to RUN. In it type MMC (Microsoft Management Console). Go to the top and click Console, then Save as, Leave it as console1 but save it to the desktop. Once you have saved it, then click on Console again and this time click on add/Remove snap-in. The add/Remove snap-in panel will open, click on the add button at the bottom left side of that panel. Scroll down to "Security Configuration and Analisys" (You can either double click on it or highlight it and then click on add). Click OK then OK again and it should give you the MMC console1 panel again. In there you should see the "Security Configuration and Analisys" with a + (plus) sign in front. Highlight that and then right click on it. Go to Open Database and click on it to select it. For the filename, replace the *.sdb with whatever name you want and click open, you should get a few databases that resemble inf files (a folder icon with a yellow spinner on it). Look for the one called "basickwk.inf" (it stands for Basick Workstation) click on open. This action will set you up again to the Console1 panel, hight light again on "Security Configuration and Analisys" and then right click on it, this time select Configure Computer now, once is done click on Analyze Computer now. Once it is done which can take up to 10 minutes. Reboot the system. That is the basic set up for security. The other ones will stop users who are not in the administrator group from Internet use.
Hope that helps.