Contributed By: Mohammed. Athif Khaleel [MVP SUS/ WSUS]
In many cases, I have seen AU Client stuck in State# 4 and it doesn’t hooks up. Let’s now see why??

If AU client is in AU STATE# 4, sometimes, BITS might get stuck in resolving the SUS SERVER NAME which you have defined in SET OPTIONS;

1. Make sure you have defined the correct SUSSERVER NAME.
    
2. Try using IP ADDRESS instead of NETBIOS NAME in SET OPTIONS to ease the name resolution process.
    
3. Use the same IP Address instead of NetBIOS name while configuring AU Client thru GPO (wuau.adm Template) or thru Registry edits.
    
4. Optionally, you can try to add the SUSSERVER NAME with IP ADDRESS in the hosts file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) of the client… which enables the client to resolve the hostname/NetBIOS name thru this host file.
    
5. Also, Run Bitsadmin /list /allusers /verbose to see what is in the queue (BITS ADMIN is in the Support-tools directory on the XP cd)

Hope this helps,
Athif
Mohammed. Athif Khaleel
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"