After several months of having no problems updating Windows 2000 pro,my
browser consistently stops at this point (it doesn't hang but just
finishes):

"Windows Update is looking for available updates... 0% complete"

I followed some suggestions around the net regarding active x controls,
closing my AV and firewalls, starting various services, changing security
permissions, playing around with the HTTPS controls in the internet
options, but all to no avail.  I was going to run several commands that the
PC world site suggested but the following problem occurred when I tried:

Type "regsvr32 wuapi.dll"  and then click OK

I got the following message telling me that the wuapi.dll can't be found:

http://tinypic.com/2kok1v

I did a search for that dll file and it's nowhere on my hard drive.

Until that can be solved inputting the following commands would be useless.

Regsvr32 _jscript.dll
Regsvr32 atl.dll
Regsvr32 msxml3.dll
Regsvr32 softpub.dll
Regsvr32 Mssip32.dll
Regsvr32 Initpki.dll

Any suggestions?  I recently installed a Netgear router and the one major
change I made to my internet options was unchecking the box that
"automatically detects settings".  (I've tried re-checking it and that
didn't work either).