Error updating SpyBot S&D v1.4

[thejammer]

I've had a PC or laptop/notebook of one kind or other since 1992. I've never had such a problem as this. The notebook is brand new. When I try to update SpyBot S&D I get the following error message exactly and completely as follows: "ERROR RETRIEVING UPDATE INFO FILE. CONNECTION CLOSED GRACEFULLY." It's NOT my Z.L. firewall as it's set to give access to SpybotSD.exe and others to do with SB&D. The worst part about this is the notebook is having problems with reaching other updating servers...as well. Even Z.L. can't update it's own Anti-spyware program and the same with others. Microsoft' s AntiSpyWare program DOES update, as does Ad-Aware. There seems to be a overall problem and I just have not been able to figure it out for days now. I've always had GREAT success, in the past, with this and all other anti-spyware programs. Can any knowledgeable person out there PLEASE help me. I very discouraged about this whole thing!!!! I've never made a Posting on any Forum before in my whole life. I'm running Win XP Home SP2 as my OS and please ask if you need anymore info. Thank you!

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

1. The error message "Error retrieving update info file" usually appears when Spybot-S&D has accidently imported bad Internet Explorer proxy settings. In this case, it helps just to disable the proxy option in Spybot-S&D:
Open the Settings section and go to the Settings page. Locate the Use proxy entry in the Automation - Web update category, and disable it.
If you cannot see the Settings section, start Spybot-S&D in advanced mode (see your Start menu group for Spybot-S&D).

This information is also available in our How-To section (including a screenshot):
http://www.spybot.info/en/howto/proxy.html

2. Please check your firewall. Most people who do not have problem #1 do have Spybot-S&D accidently blocked in their firewall.

3. If nothing else works, you can still use the manual updater, which is available on the website: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html - the Detection Update.
(Notice: if the Info page does not show the correct update date after installing the updates with the manual updater, please ignore that - this will be fixed with the next release)

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot