You do have a right to complain because online connectivity is a feature of the ps3 you bought. I am in the same boat as you haven't played my ps3 in 6 months and would rather not have to deal with downloading updates so it will remain off.

I could relate if I experienced the same issues you're having, but I never have had any issues with PSN. Really, the only trouble I've experienced with the service is the PSN trophy syncing taking a long time to complete sometimes. But now that's no longer a problem and neither are firmware updates with the automatic updates via PSN+ (they were more of an inconvenience than anything major when I wasn't a Plus member).

@laserbolts said:

You do have a right to complain because online connectivity is a feature of the ps3 you bought. I am in the same boat as you haven't played my ps3 in 6 months and would rather not have to deal with downloading updates so it will remain off.

Yup, same deal for me. I went to play my ps3 a couple months ago and, of course, I got the "a system update is required" bullshit. As soon as that popped up, I shut the system down and I haven't bothered with it since.