Endpoint Protection

This is driving me nutty/mad,

random sep clients fall out of date - week behind or more (virus defs ect).  This is on SEP 12.1.  If I view the system log on the sep client it says "Downloaded new content update from the management server failed."   Remote file path:  my sep server path.  So on the client I can open a browser and paste in the exact address that it says 'remote file path' and download the file just fine!  Ok so sep can clearly communicate with the sep server.  

Next I just click live update in the sep client - live update runs without error - updates the virus defs.  So why in the ?? Is the client not able to do this itself?

Have you tried to reinstall the client or repair it?

Check  wether all clients are communicate to server machine are not in server machine you should have space more than 4GB 

and check the internet connection and restart the machine once and run luall in that machine and waite for latest update and check for errors when liveupdate runes.

What is the IP Address scheme you are using ?

May be the post of Brian81 will help you. See the below link for your reference:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sep-12-clients-not-updating-0