Is there a way to install the 20.04 version over the Internet or network?

[MAFoElffen]

This is here for your reference:

This is the original 16.04 Sources List...

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted


## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates main restricted
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates main restricted


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates universe
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates universe


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates multiverse


## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-backports main restricted universe multiverse


## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial partner


deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security main restricted
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security universe
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security multiverse
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security multiverse

Here is a Sources list for 18.04:

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted


## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic universe
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates universe
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates universe


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates multiverse


## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse


## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner


deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security universe
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security multiverse
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security multiverse

[irv]

Well, I mark this one solved. Mike (MAFoElffen) and I spent the evening together on Zoom and got it up and running to 18.04. here it is:

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-147-generic i686)

* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage

System information as of Tue Jun 22 19:31:03 CDT 2021

System load: 0.07 Processes: 114
Usage of /: 1.2% of 226.87GB Users logged in: 0
Memory usage: 14% IP address for enp4s0: 192.168.1.105
Swap usage: 0%

0 updates can be applied immediately.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.


Last login: Tue Jun 22 18:39:28 2021 from 140.190.55.196

[irv]

I thought I would add one more post to this thread to tell you how we fixed the problem of all the errors I got in trying to do the upgrade to 18.04. It was s DNS error. I had to enter the command

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

and fix the DNS setting in this file.

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto enp4s0
iface enp4s0 inet static
address 192.168.1.105
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameserver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

I had to change the last line I had some mistakes in the formatting. Once this was done the upgrade worked.
Sometimes the obvious is overlooked.

EDIT: we found this out by doing a:

ping www.google.com

It did not connect with told us it as a DNS error.

[MAFoElffen]

Yes. Pinging named addresses did not work, but pinging the same's IP addresses did. Those little things matter.

I'm glad we found the problem and everything is working and supported for him now.

[irv]

Yes. Pinging named addresses did not work, but pinging the same's IP addresses did. Those little things matter.

I'm glad we found the problem and everything is working and supported for him now.

Yes, thanks for all the help Mike, it was enjoyable working with you on this problem. And my wife still can believe we had so much to talk about while we did this.
Well, I should be good until 2023 now. I have all the files back on the server and everything is running great. The only thing I had to do was clean out the .ssh folder in my home directory on my local machine so I didn't have to keep answering "yes" to the question about the key.