I found the solution. The problem is that in the Joomla table update_sites, there is an unneccessary space before the CMC Updates URL like this:
" https//compojoom.com/index.php?option=com_ars&view=update&task=stream&format=xml&id=13&dummy=extension.xml"
^
|_ see the space? (By the way, I had to remove the colon from the URL, otherwise Kunena kept rendering it as a link.)
Remove the space and the Joomla and Extensions update checks work in the control panel.
I found it on the previous version, but I thought you'd have found it so I didn't report back. I just upgraded to 1.4 and the space is back again, so I thought I ought to let you know.
Hopefully, this will help anyone else having the same problem.
Daniel Dimitrov wrote: Hey Jason,
the problem is that the hotspots update url uses encrypted connection (https) and your server is not configured properly to handle this (is this a local xampp or wamp installation???).
You can login with phpmyadmin and navigate to the #__update_sites table and disable the cmc update url.
Regards,
Daniel