I struggled with this issue and tried various solutions suggested in several
forums, but the one that worked for me was this I found on The 2000friends
Forum! as follows:

"There may be problems with a 'proxy server' between your PC and the Windows
Update server.
Assuming that you don't run your own proxy server at home, this suggests
that your PC is probably set up to use a proxy server provided by your ISP.
Freeserve/Wanadoo normally does this.
Go to IE6->Tools->Internet Options->Connections tab (or
Start->Settings->Control Panel->Internet Options->Connections tab), select
(click on to highlight) the default connection that you use and press the
Settings button. Untick the box about half way down next to 'Use a proxy
server for this connection'. Also Untick the box at the top labelled
'Automatically detect settings' if this is ticked.

Click on OK buttons until the Internet Options Control Panel disappears.

Disconnect from the internet (if you are already connected) and reconnect.

Windows Update should now work normally.
--

It did for me!!

Jez


"TaurArian [MVP]" wrote:

> Thanks for the feed back, it might help someone else.
> Kaylene
>
> "cgs2002" <cgs2002@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news9533A3D-3BE9-4EEC-8293-E09C0D19D4E5@microsoft.com...
> > Thanks for these suggestions. What ended up solving my particular issue was
> > to clear the cookies and files in Internet Options and the Tool then
> > installed correctly!
> >
> >
>
>