autoupdate fails

Hi,

I'm looking for an answer to this issue.

This is a standalone version, unmanaged.

The system is a windows server 2003, sp 2.

The symptoms are very similar to the ones described in this article-

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/28841.html

The updates window displays "could not contact server".

Here are the entries from the updates log file-

Message: AutoUpdate finished
Module: ALUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: Installation of Sophos AutoUpdate skipped
Module: ALUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: Downloading phase completed
Module: ALUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: Product cache update from primary server successfully finished
Module: CIDUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: Downloading product Sophos AutoUpdate from server http://xxxxx/xxxxx/
Module: CIDUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: ERROR:   Download of SAVXP failed from server http://xxxxxx/xxxxxx/
Module: CIDUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: Downloading product SAVXP from server http://xxxxxx/xxxxxx/
Module: CIDUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

Message: ***************          Sophos AutoUpdate started          ***************
Module: ALUpdate
Process ID: 2228
Thread ID: 2684

I noted that in the article I referred to above, the number 3 under "what to do" suggests to check if the ALUpdate.exe appears in the task manager, when selecting "update now".  I noticed it does not, on this system.  I do have other working systems with the same version and configurations, and the ALUpdate.exe does appear in the task manager, when selecting "update now".  I'm hoping this might be a useful clue.  The article does not list a suggestion for what to do if it fails this particular test, it only describes the test.

Things I've already tried- uninstalling/reinstalling sophos and autoupdate, re entering the authentication credentials, verifying the system has access to the web site via ie, verifying the existance of the user account SophosSAUxxx0, checking/verifying the contents of the file 'TopLevelCatalogue.dat' as referred to in the above article, and copying over the contents of the directory C:\Program Files\Sophos\Autoupdate\Config from another working system.

If any more information is needed, let me know.  I'm hoping this turns out to be a simple issue.

ITguy