ISP group 186K has blamed potential congestion on its network this week on bandwidth being swallowed by Microsoft's monthly security patch update.

Redmond unleashed six critical fixes on Tuesday.

186K's engineers first suspected a new virus, according to the firm's status page, but later on Wednesday morning said it was because its network had struggled with the larger than normal update. The firm sent an email to customers that read:

There is a possibility you could be experiencing some congestion issues this morning on our network. This appears to be affecting systems other than just our own, and it is believed to be related to a large Microsoft Windows Update which has become available for automatic download today.

Leeds-based 186K is behind ISP brands Elite, EzeeDSL and EFH Broadband.

It's the third time this week that ISPs have griped about having to carry data. First up, Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse hit the bandwidth panic button over the BBC iPlayer. Research revealed that internet video is causing similar collywobbles Stateside too. ®

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• Microsoft dispels rumors of stealth Windows updates (14 September 2007)
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• MS lawyers take out AutoPatcher (30 August 2007)
• Patch Tuesday update triggered Skype outage (20 August 2007)
• Microsoft delivers critical fixes for Windows, IE and Excel (14 August 2007)
• Microsoft plans six critical patches (9 August 2007)
• NetServices sells out to 186K (9 May 2007)
• 186K swallows EFH broadband (12 December 2006)
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