Re: Firewalls, annual licence fee ?

In article <442ae002$0$9249$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net>,
Ozzie <black.hole@ukgateway.net> wrote:
>Why are most firewall programs sold with annual licence fees ?

>Surely they are not upgraded every day like Anti virus progs.
>Is it really necessary to keep a firewall up to date all the time ?

Licensing varies: some of them really do shut down if you don't
get the renewal code.

For -most- of them, you buy a device with a particular software
release, and if you are happy with that release you don't -have- to
upgrade.

But -- you have to know what the vendor's policy is when security
problems are found, and when bugs are found.

Bugs in firewalls are common, just like bugs in an other complex
code. A lot of the bugs are rather obscure, perhaps dealing with
the interaction of a 10-year old feature with a new one, or perhaps
dealing with new features that don't -always- work. Outright security
fixes are not particularily common, but there might be a small
number a year for any given release.

Some vendors have a "free software upgrades for life" policy.

Some vendors have a "free software when a security fix goes out"
policy, possibly restricting the entitlement to "the same release
train". When the release train eventually stops being supported,
what happens afterwards is not always well defined.

Some vendors have a "No updates without a contract" policy.

It's a mix, just like in other software businesses. The most
-common- practice is that the annual fee is for updates and
support calls, and possibly for hardware maint if applicable
(and covered by the contract variety.)

Microsoft announced plans years ago to head towards a
"software leasing" scheme, in which you paid a yearly fee
for use of the software and updates, but that the access
would expire. There was a fair bit of press at the time that
said more or less, "Ah, yes, that is the way of the future";
fortunately Microsoft's releases along those lines are late.
Received on Mon May 1 01:03:23 2006