Update downloads keep stopping.......

You may wish to troubleshoot Software Update as this article explains:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106695

or just use Software Update to determine when an update is available for you to download from http://www.apple.com/swupdates/

I do the latter, and sometimes it is necessary to wait a couple days before that happens. I find I'm less likely to run into problems if I do that.

It sounds like your Mac isn't keeping its connection active - this happens to me sometimes but only after leaving it in sleep mode for a prolonged amount of time.

I'm not exactly sure why this happens, I'd see what Apple says- give em a call.

Sounds like you have an internet connection problem.

Not a good idea to surf the net while the downloads are happening. The moment any update wants to install, it expects a virgin system. If temporarily files that are unexpected appear during the install, they can damage the files that are being installed.

There is probably some problem with your network settings ( DNS, Router, etc. ). If You upgraded from Tiger I suggest you remove your ethernet connection and recreate it. For some reason leopard doesn't always import all the settings properly from tiger.

You might try turning off IPv6, some networks can't handle the new protocol very well.

If all else fails, configure all settings manually instead of DHCP.

IMHO DHCP is only of any use on a portable computer (but that's another argument/another time).

If your router has a firewall, be sure its not blocking ports you need ( 20, 21, 443, etc. ).

If you are using a downloader be sure it is leopard compatible (may need an update).

Hmmmm....

The only other thing I can think of is possibly a permission problem. Leopard is famous for that. Check permissions on whatever folder you are trying to download to and make sure you have permission to write to that folder. If not you will have to change them.

a brody wrote:
Not a good idea to surf the net while the downloads are happening. The moment any update wants to install, it expects a virgin system. If temporarily files that are unexpected appear during the install, they can damage the files that are being installed.

Nonsense. In the first place, all files being downloaded are created & opened for writing at the time the download starts, then appended as segments of the file are moved from memory to the disk. After the file is completely written, it is closed. This is a fundamental operation for any file system.

In the second place, updates don't expect a "virgin system," whatever that is supposed to mean. Installs (like everything else in a multitasking OS) respect "busy" flags & don't update open files while they are in use. There are hundreds of these files open no matter what the user is doing -- just open Activity Monitor & inspect a few root level processes to get an idea of how pervasive & impossible to avoid this is.

The only way one file can damage another is if the filesystem has problems & loses track of where each file is stored on the disk. This will be a problem whether you are doing a download or not.