rjkrash -
You're right. I thought this was fairly common knowledge myself, but it appears to be quite confusing for people.
We went through the same thing at work when our box jockeys went into a Nimda panic back in September. All they could do was tell people to upgrade IE (I think it was IE 5.2 at the time) and they passes them the regular public download link.
Using the technique described in the article you reference above would have allowed them download ONE copy of the full install package. This package could have been deployed to building-local public (maintenance/support) file servers throughout the organization. Then simply direct users to install from these "Y:\ drive" sources.
Instead, we flooded out network AND the public Internet with over 1000 web-setups of IE!
I tried to forestall this early by providing these guys with the information above, but they just didn't get it. I even downloaded the full setup for them and "handed" it to them. No dice.
I'm raging far off topic here, but this is just one more example of how dissatisfied I am with "network administrators" as a class. When it isn't something like this it is something like having to configure FTP services for them, or showing them how to use Windows Scheduler, or what to look for in NT logs, or explaining (for the nth time) how IP subnetting works.
And about a third of the "administrators" I have to deal with are MSCEs!
Something is very wrong out here.
I guess I just miss the days when the career path to administration involved knowledge of fundamentals and experience as a systems programmer before they handed you the keys to the kingdom. Today the career path seems to be "fetch and carry PCs," "install simples PC applications," "take a couple 3 day classes," and you're in!
"Flame off!"
