There is a great tool from Microsoft to troubleshoot SUS installations from the client. From my experience it tells you fairly quickly where the problem lies.
Download from this location with the Readme. These are linked (at the moment) from the wsus support page which also contains a link to the server version of this tool (which I’ve not tried yet)
A good set of results can be found in the extended entry.
C:\tools\wsus>clientdiag
WSUS Client Diagnostics Tool
Checking Machine State
Checking for admin rights to run tool . . . . . . . . . PASS
Automatic Updates Service is running. . . . . . . . . . PASS
Background Intelligent Transfer Service is running. . . PASS
Wuaueng.dll version 5.8.0.2469. . . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
This version is WSUS 2.0
Checking AU Settings
AU Option is 4: Scheduled Install . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
Option is from Policy settings
Checking Proxy Configuration
Checking for winhttp local machine Proxy settings . . . PASS
Winhttp local machine access type
Winhttp local machine Proxy. . . . . . . . . . NONE
Winhttp local machine ProxyBypass. . . . . . . NONE
Checking User IE Proxy settings . . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
User IE Proxy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NONE
User IE ProxyByPass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . NONE
User IE AutoConfig URL Proxy . . . . . . . . . NONE
User IE AutoDetect
AutoDetect not in use
Checking Connection to WSUS/SUS Server
WUServer = http://Server02
WUStatusServer = http://Server02
UseWuServer is enabled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
Client is pointed to SUS 1.0 Server
Connection to server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
SelfUpdate folder is present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . PASS
Press Enter to Complete
Comments
Thanks a ton, we have been wondering if our clients were seeing things properly, and its nice that you found this tool and what it should look like.
Mike A.
That link to the client diagnostic tool is now 404. Anyone have a new link?
Author
I’ve uploaded the file to Note that it’s pretty old (circa 2005) so good luck.