Web updates, bizarre updating behaviour

[Pete B]

I have been using web updating, apparently quite successfully for the last 6 months. It seems to be an excellent system in the main. About a month ago, a customer told me that on checking for an update (in this case via the installer.exe /update route) that he was informed no update was available although there had been 3 minor version releases since that time. I took it as a glitch but now I have another user who has used web updating and while using version 6.2.1.1 has been told there are no updates available ! Any further attempts at him updating indicate that there are still no updates available.
Once is debatable but this second bizarre instance is worrying. I have independently verified the customer's situation ... indeed he is stuck on the older version even though we're now pushing version 6.5.2.1 !
I would be incredibly surprised if this was actually an IA/scripting issue as such (it appears to work perfectly well typically) but ironically in a post preceding this one (not wishing to hijack their thread), NZScottie seems perhaps to have similar issues.
Has anyone encountered such perverse web updating behaviour ? May be a firewall issue ? Any ideas ?

For the record, I use a standard updates.mia script from IA v.6.23 modified only to show a messagebox when there are no updates available. In this particular software installation there is only ever 1 file which changes and this is the main app. executable. So for each version change I build a patch based ONLY on the previous installation with patch build set to whole files only. Then I issue an update pack against ALL previous versions. Personally this has never failed but may be it's because I always am testing absolutely consecutive updates, not ever jumping a version update ... any ideas please ?
Here is a copy of my most current updates.ini ...

[Update Packs for Versions]
6.0.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.1.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.2.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.3.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.4.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.4.2.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
6.5.1.1=My Application v. 6.5.2.1
[My Application v. 6.5.2.1]
URL=http://www.mywebsite.com/software/myapp ... ALLER).exe
Description=Fixes inappropriate and unpredictable behaviour in some resizable windows eg. unnecessary horizontal scrollbars. Applies to Windows Vista installations ONLY but ALL users should install this update.
Reboot=No
Silent=Yes
Parameters=

Really would appreciate some ideas on this, my thanks in anticipation.

Pete B.

[jimo]

Try this instead:
[Update Packs for Versions]
6.0.1.1=6.5.2.1
6.1.1.1=6.5.2.1
6.2.1.1=6.5.2.1
6.3.1.1=6.5.2.1
6.4.1.1=6.5.2.1
6.4.2.1=6.5.2.1
6.5.1.1=6.5.2.1
[6.5.2.1]
URL=http://www.mywebsite.com/software/myapp ... ALLER).exe
Description=Fixes inappropriate and unpredictable behaviour in some resizable windows eg. unnecessary horizontal scrollbars. Applies to Windows Vista installations ONLY but ALL users should install this update.
Reboot=No
Silent=Yes
Parameters=

[Pete B]

Jimo : many thanks for the input with this but please, why do you think this would make a difference ?

Further to my previous post, something that just springs to mind is that earlier versions of IA 6 had an issue with using Flash movies during install on to Vista machines. I now use HTML but that early version of my software still used Flash in the installer. I wonder if this issue could have also afflicted XP machines by preventing an upgrade (on Vista machines it prevented uninstallation). I don't seem to have any trouble with HTML containing installers but maybe I'm just clouding the issue by throwing this around ... so I'll keep quiet

thanks again

[Pete B]

So for each version change I build a patch based ONLY on the previous installation

That is the problem here, it was my misunderstanding of updating and patching which was at fault. I always built an update with a patch reference ONLY to the installer for the previous release. This of course works fine if every user updates every one of your update releases in strict consecutive order but if they don't and miss one, then they'll not be able to update further when you release an update.
You MUST provide a patch reference to each and every one of your previous installer releases and then when you build, IA will trawl each of them in sequence. The resulting installer produced will then allow updating against ANY of your previous releases. If you don't have copies of your previously released installers / web update packages to work with then I fear you may have a problem but nevertheless I hope it helps you out.

all the best