Sophos Anti-Virus: Troubleshooting updating from Web CID issues

Issues with updating from a Web CID can have a number of causes. The most common can be resolved by working through the following.

Known to apply to the following Sophos product and version
Sophos Update Manager

What to do

1. Check whether the CID can be accessed via a web browser.

If you don't know the address of your web CID, you can usually find it in the updating details. It will usually take the form http://servername/sharename/

1. Check to see if you can access the share. If you cannot, check the share (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sophos\Update Manager\Update Manager) as follows:
   • Right-click on the shared folder and select 'Properties'
   • Click on the 'Web Sharing' tab
   • Ensure 'Share on:' dropdown list is correctly set.
   • Ensure that ONLY the following are selected:
     • Share this folder
     • Read
     • Directory Browsing
   • Ensure 'Application Permissions' are set to 'none'.
2. Check that files can be downloaded. To do this, right-click the file, and select 'Save As'. You should be able to download and save the document successfully on a computer. Test both the .exe and .upd files.

If these work then the Web CID should be active.
If they do not work, check the Web site security settings (IIS administrative settings) as described in step 2 below.

2. Check the Web Site Security Policy

• Open up IIS Manager (Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager).
• Right-click on the chosen website and select 'Properties'.
• Select the 'Directory Security' tab.
• In the 'Authentication and Access Control' option Select 'edit'.
• Check the details are correct here. If you untick 'basic authentication' this may resolve the issue.
• 'Digest' authentication may fail on some web servers. Change authentication to only Integrated, restart IIS and test updating again.
• If this still fails – allowing anonymous login will temporarily allow clients to update but this will not fix the initial problem and the Web CID will need further troubleshooting. This is most likely to be a permissions issue.

3. Check the MIME details on the website

• Open up IIS Manager (Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager).
• Right-click on the website and select 'Properties'.
• Select the 'HTTP Headers' tab.
• Click the 'MIME types' button.
• Check the details here. For test purpose you can choose 'New' and in the extension add '.*' and see if this resolves the issue.
  NOTES:
  1. Clear the Sophos AutoUpdate Cache folder and force an update on a test client after changing the MIME types (otherwise a http 404 error may be seen).
  2. An incorrect version of ASP.net (Select the 'ASP.NET' tab) can also cause MIME types to fail.