"You have the latest database version" was the only response I got for a week when I attempted to update. However, the Listed Update Date, Database Version, and Fingerprints loaded never changed. Removing rules.ref resulted in a message that the file was missing and an offer to download it. But the same file version that had been deleted was written back in, but with today's date. It turned out that Internet Explorer was set to work offline. I'm posting because this appears to be a slightly different symptom of this IE setting than was so very nicely handled by the previous posts on "MBAM draws it's connection settings from IE" and the application of this principle to the Work Offline setting in IE. Although I never use IE (and generally prohibit it from outbound communication), now I'll pay more attention to its settings. Thanks VERY much for great information.