maybe this is my hope

Open up Apple Remote Desktop
Choose the computers you wish to update from the computer list that you have created. Click the UNIX button at the top of the window.

IMPORTANT: On the ratio button click the “user” button. Now type in the username that you use in ARD to control the machines. In my case I use “arduser”. If you don’t do this ARD will complain that a correct console user is not available.

Next type in the command

softwareupdate (switches as described above) (ip address or domain name of local OSX Update server)

where the switches are the type of command you want (-l, -a etc)

and the IP address of the server you want to pull from.

in my example it would be

softwareupdate -i 192.168.1.240

This will tell Software Update to list all available updates AND to poll those updates from 192.168.1.240 NOT from Apple’s SU servers. If you WANT ard to pull from the Internet then just don’t place an ip address or domain after the command (this is what you want if you aren’t running a OSX Server on your network)

You can use a domain name instead if your DNS settings are set in the Network control panel and your DNS server(s) are setup correctly.