Unable to Update CC Application

Regular PC, running Windows 7 Professional.  Creative Cloud member since last October so I've done MANY updates......

Yesterday afternoon my laptop wanted me to update some of the Adobe CC applications, so I opened the CC app and IT wanted to install an update.  It started downloading then failed with an error 50, and told me to contact customer support.

SO, I went to the desktop and opened the Creative Cloud application.  It ALSO wanted to update itself.  And did the same thing the laptop did.  Said there was a problem and to contact customer support.  When I hit RETRY, it hung for a while at 2%, then failed with an error 205. 

This morning I called Adobe and the person there took over control of my desktop (an uncomfortable process) and spent an hour checking things.  It appears that the CC application won't update, and neither will the Adobe Application Manager.  He finally found some information that says I need to go INTO THE WINDOWS FIREWALL and whitelist a bunch of host/port combinations...

WHERE/WHEN did this happen (or perhaps, WTF has Adobe done NOW?)?  I've NEVER needed to ANY of this in the past.  And how many OTHER normal, non-technical, CC users are having this problem?  I saw a couple topics asking about this, but I presume they're enterprise installations, NOT simple home systems...  If I DO have to do this, does someone have a basic, idiot-proof process that spells out in human-understandable language the exact process of doing this?

The following host/port combinations may need to be whitelisted when logging in with an Adobe ID to download, install, and package applications using the Creative Cloud Packager.