Thanks, actually it turned out to be an issue with the router. I shut everything down including the router and re-booted and everything is back to normal. 
I have two different dell computers 1) INSPIRON 620 WITH WINDOW HOME PREMIUM, and 2) An INSPIRON 3847 with windows 8.1. Both show the same error for windows update. Windows could not search for new updates error code 80072FBF. I tried the update trouble shooter but that did nothing for the problem. I suspect it is a registry issue similar to error 80246002, but don't know how to correct it. Help?  
Windows update error again, this time 80072FBF.