For business owners and consumers, software patches and updates are probably one of the most annoying aspects of technology. They force you to unexpectedly stop whatever you’re doing and wait until your software is brought up to date. In rare cases they might even crash your device, adding to your frustration. Despite all this, however, software updates and hardware upgrades are, at worst, the necessary evils of owning technology. In a world filled with exploits and vulnerabilities, the need to keep devices up to date simply comes with the territory. In this post, we’re explaining why you should update your software and hardware devices.
Most of the time, when people talk about keeping their devices up to date, they’re referring to software patching or software updates. These are enhancements to the programs, operating system and/or firmware of a device. Developers often make security and performance enhancements that sustain your device’s health throughout its life.
Another aspect of keeping your technology up to date is upgrading hardware. Unlike software updates, hardware upgrades are physical enhancements. Upgrading a device could be as complex as making physical modifications to it or as simple as purchasing the next version of it. Upgrades aren’t usually necessary to remain secure unless a developer explicitly says so, which generally only happens when support for a device has ended and it’s no longer receiving updates of any kind. For example, this was the case for PCs and hardware devices running Windows XP and Windows Vista (Windows 7 soon), that lacked the hardware requirements to run newer versions of Windows. While some of these devices might still work, it’s unsafe to use them because the operating systems that they’re able to run have not received updates to protect them from new cyber security threats. So in most cases business owners and consumers needed to purchase new PC’s that came with a supported OS, such as Windows 8, 8.5 and now Windows 10. Older PC’s generally do not have the necessary hardware components (RAM, Processor Speed, etc.) to run newer Operating Systems, so a new PC purchase is required.
Don’t Forget to Stay Compatible
Adding to all the complexity of software updates and hardware upgrades, consumers and business owners need to also be sure that ALL the programs they use are supported and compatible with the new changes. If multiple programs are integrated with one another, its important to ensure that the integration will still continue to work after an update/change is made. This may require speaking with a specialist who can confirm compatibility between software programs and/or hardware upgrades. First Direct Corp. can assist with GoldMine related questions and issues.
One particular important GoldMine issue to make you aware of is the move from early TLS protocols support to TLS 1.2 support by many email service providers. If you are not aware of the change to TLS 1.2 support, you can read more about it here.
How does this affect GoldMine users?
Email communications are sent using TLS security encryption and many service provides are now forcing their customers to use the newer TLS 1.2 protocol. Only the more recent versions of GoldMine support the latest TLS 1.2 protocol and we’ve seen a large number of customers calling in saying they are having issues sending emails or customers are not receiving their emails. This is most likely due to the fact that you are using an older version of GoldMine or are on an older server/pc environment that does not support TLS 1.2. This is where you would need to perform a software and/or hardware upgrade in order to continue to send emails.
Some customers are not even aware that their emails are not being sent. It appears as though they are, and emails may appear in the sent folder, but the email is not delivered. If you are on GoldMine earlier than 2018.2 and/or you are running a server OS earlier than Server 2008, you may be experiencing this issue. Please contact First Direct Corp. to discuss upgrading.
