dial up user needs a refinement

As a dialup client I used NIS 2010 effectively my making all my updates manual and monitoring the update process for failure  restarting it repeatedly until complete.  On your advice I downloaded NIS2011 from a disc and did the first set of updates from a wifi location (my healthclub had access in their snack bar).  I didn't find a manual option on 2011 and when the updates failed NIS just kept retrying resulting in whatever program I'm using slowing to a stop.  What I would like from Norton is for the screen which indicates when the last update took place to also indicate when the last update was FINISHED.  Then I know when I need to do a manual update to accommodate my limited bandwidth.  As a  coping mechanism, I'm manually running the update each time I turn on my laptop and go online.   Is there a better alternative.  Being ground to a halt in the middle of some financial thing is ugly.   Thanks.  poorchic