NetMAX Upgrade Policy

Effective Immediately - Last revised 08/25/2004. Policies are subject to change without notice.

This support policy supercedes all previously documented policies and any other outlined support offerings that may be found on any NetMAX product, packaging material, user and installation manuals, electronically stored materials, marketing materials or advertising materials.

NetMAX is committed to keeping our customers secure and up to date, which is why we issue periodic revision updates to our products. These revisions fix newly discovered vulnerabilities in the operating system and subsystems as they are found, and are strongly recommended by NetMAX for use by all NetMAX customers.

Because these revision updates build upon the most recent revision of NetMAX, only users running that recent revision will be able to install them. Users who are not up to date but whom are running the most current release version of NetMAX (NetMAX 5) can apply all needed revisions in a sequential fashion (from 5.0 to 5.01, 5.01 to 5.02, etc.) to get their products patched to the most recent revision. Users of previous release versions of NetMAX (NetMAX 4 and under) must purchase and install an upgrade to the new release version before being able to install the newest revisions.

When NetMAX products are updated to include very significant changes, such as changes in the kernel version being used, NetMAX will issue a new release version instead of a revision to the old release version. These new versions build upon all of the old release version's issued patches, and include new features and changes too extensive for a normal revision update. It is for this reason that NetMAX is only able to develop our periodic revision updates for the latest release version of our NetMAX products.

When new release versions of NetMAX are issued, they become available to purchase on CD and via download (and possibly other forms) as an upgrade. Owners of any prior registered version of NetMAX are eligible for upgrade discounts to this new revision. We offer this discount to reward our loyal customers, to protect their investment in our product, and also because it costs less to provide an update CD or download instead of a new full NetMAX product package.

When new release versions of NetMAX are issued, previous release versions are retired to allow our developers and support staff to maintain the current version. In order to give our customers a reasonable timeframe to upgrade, NetMAX continues to provide support and issue needed security updates for the retiring release version for 30 days. Customers who prefer to stay with the old version after this grace period will not experience any reduced functionality in their products, but may be exposed to newly discovered security vulnerabilities since no further revisions will be released for their version of NetMAX. Upgrading is always the safest solution to this problem, but there are often other solutions available via NetMAX Support. However, please be aware that all calls to NetMAX Technical Support must begin by opening a paid support incident/ticket, and that previous release versions are not officially supported. NetMAX cannot guarantee any non-upgrade solution will be available in such cases.

Customers who have purchased and registered a NetMAX product of the retiring release version within 30 days of the issue date of a new release version may upgrade to the new release version for only the cost of shipping and handling (if applicable). Please contact NetMAX directly if you are eligible and would like to take advantage of this offer.

NetMAX reserves the right to revise this policy as needed, and may do so at any time. The most recent version of this policy can always be found on the NetMAX website.

If you have questions about this policy, please feel free to contact NetMAX online using the form at:

http://www.netmax.com/partners/contacts.html

As always, thank you for choosing NetMAX!