Thanks, @hbhb, I guess it wouldn't hurt, but it seems like it shouldn't matter. I wiped my disk and reinstalled again with a W7 ISO SP1 that I got via links in this forum, hash checked. Double checked the time zone and time settings. Ran the loader. Installed the network driver and made sure I was connected to my home group. Still get the error. I had no problem with my Acer computer, only the Dell's. I've tried a couple of versions of DAZ' loader just to be sure, and of course it doesn't matter. Earlier I chased down some network issues such as DNS settings, and ran some dll registrations suggested based on searches of this issue. No good so far. I had success with this computer with another disk a few days ago. I got the error at first, but the next day it want away and I was fine after that. So, this remains a stubborn mystery. Nothing suggested here or anywhere, save for the time zone suggestion on page 2 of this discussion, has has any affect. It's ironic that making sure I have the correct time zone and date/time does not seem to be helping me since then. Is it just me or why is my Acer fine the my Dell's problematic?
Right. As of last night (shortly after install) and first thing today. But then I changed the DNS settings to a trusted pair instead of automatic and tried again. This time I could get updates. So in this case the error probably resolved itself on the 2nd attempt the day after or hours after install. I can't pinpoint the thing that fixed it, because I changed the DNS on a previous install to no effect. I have a mixed network of more than one user, XP, Mac OS X , Linux and Windows 7, so I have avoided the default home network setup. In the past that seemed to complicate access from non-W7 systems. Instead, my W7 systems think of themselves as being connected to a business network - and I can't change that, unless perhaps I go through the home network wizard. I don't know if that could have an effect on updates. It's interesting that my Acer got updates immediately without any complaints. Yesterday I noticed that my 3rd install (Dell) looked at my 2nd install (Dell) as a "browser master", with an error. The browser service was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master \\<system> on the network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{<long alphanumeric string>}. I started the new install system before starting any other computers today, to see what would happen. I did not see the "browser master" event in the viewer, but I still got the 80072efe - the first time I tried. Then, after starting the other systems, and after changing the DNS settings to the dnsadvantage IP's, I was able to get windows updates. Sorry for all these details. I hope they will help someone else if they have a similar setup/problem.
It seems to me that Win7 have a hard time getting through and connecting to MS server, mot likely a component of your your network set up , either firewall, router, dns...is preventing it
I've had to refresh a lot in FF, and email doesn't always connect the first time. I've been looking into slow internet connections in W7. DNS Advantage is recommended for DNS servers support, but I've been seeing event log entries indicating that the dns server is not able to respond. Maybe my geographic location (Asia) is not the best for that. The entries have not shown M$ URL's to be unreachable though.