Microsoft Security Updates / No Internet Service

This has happened on two computers: my wife's and my parents'. Automatic updating is turned on. My wife's computer suddenly lost Internet service upon reboot. I checked everything. She had access to the Linksys router, the network properties showed she was connected to the Internet and, most importantly, I, on another computer, was connected (my auto updates was turned off). I fixed the problem by going to the Device Manager, uninstalling the network card and then scanning for hardware changes. Bing! Working again.Two days later I'm at my parents' house. I turned on their computer, updates were installed and the system restarted. Again, no Internet service despite all apparent "go" connections. Uninstalled the network card, rebooted and it worked again.

I keep my updates off because NetFramework 2 wreaks havoc with a library program I have, so no NetFramework at all. And I've had no problems. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had similar problems? My wife had spent more than an hour on the phone with a tech support guy at Linksys and he had her setting up her notebook computer and changing its settings. When I got home, she was right in the middle of working with a computer that wasn't the problem. I guess this guy was paid by the hour because he was in no hurry to wrap everything up. But he told my wife that he works for several companies in tech support (real surprise there) and that MS "updates" create numerous "issues" I think they call them now.