If, like me, you are still using Microsoft's poor excuse for an operating system, and your copy isn't exactly, how shall we say... *legal* ...then you're probably having a lot of problems downloading things like service packs and DirectX updates.
Now, a lot of hacks and cheats were found to bypass the validation check over the last few years, ways that are almost corrected/prevented shortly thereafter. I was in this very situation a few days ago, and I found a neat page that features the best way around the check.
Direct links to download the files you need. It's so amazingly simple that it deserves a prize to however thought about it first. So in case you too need some important updates, have fun by going there:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/10/08/direct-download-link-for-microsoft-downloads-center-wga-protected-software/---
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
