Symantec's newer products (versions 9 & 10) have not been able to run on these platforms since their release and Ro Data Solutions recommends an upgrade.
What we've done in the past is to load version 7.6 or 8.0 on those older machines to give them at least minimal levels of virus protection.
The bottom line is this: If you are running older versions of Symantec Antivirus or any other legacy virus protection, due to the necessity to continue to run on a legacy workstation or server, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, your virus protection will no longer be receiving virus definition updates.
The ability to support security and enterprise administration virus products is dependent upon the continuing support by the manufacturer of your Operating System (OS) IE: Windows version. Upon the manufacturer's discontinuation of support for an OS, your anti-virus product support will also transition into the inactivate phase for that discontinued OS.
For Example: Symantec�s version 7.6 and 8.X have reached "End of Life". "End of Life" means that all support and security updates for that specific product are discontinued. Any customer running these versions will not be protected from any new viruses that come out.
IDSI has offered Symantec Anti-virus in two distinct flavors. Corporate Edition (for 10 users or more) and Small Business Edition (for 10 users and under).
If you were sold a Small Business Edition, and we were not able to install the latest version, due to running it on the older systems mentioned above, even if you maintained your subscription with Symantec, your anti-virus software may have become disabled. We are currently using our best efforts to contact customers that fall into that category to alert them of this new development. However, please call us if you suspect that you are running the Small Business Edition and we have not yet contacted you. Corporate Edition customers are not in quite as much danger, however older systems will no longer be updated as mentioned above.
We understand the critical nature of this issue and the fact that this could very well have a negative financial impact on you business, however anti-virus issues should not be left to chance. Many of you have seen what a nasty virus can do and in many cases you've seen how the cleanup of a virus attack can be extremely expensive. Unfortunately the only solid recommendation that we have for you at this time is to replace any computers that are still running Windows 9x, Windows NT or Novell NetWare 5.x and below in order to keep your organization safe from virus attacks.
In most cases, Windows 98 machines are not powerful enough to be upgraded to Microsoft Windows XP. Remember that Windows XP wasn't around when those older systems were developed so they simply don't have the processing capabilities that Windows XP needs to run efficiently.