UPGRADE to version 9.0 of Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac HE

Hi Rick,

Do you know what version you were installing? I would not expect the prompt about the kernel extension wtih 9.0.3 (although previous versions would show it).

"InterCheck smashing your CPU" doesn't sound pleasant or normal. What happened next?

Hi Rick,

Do you know what version you were installing? I would not expect the prompt about the kernel extension wtih 9.0.3 (although previous versions would show it).

"InterCheck smashing your CPU" doesn't sound pleasant or normal. What happened next?

Hi Bob,

Any idea when Sophos will no longer continue to release security patches and protection updates for version 8? And when that point is finally reached, will there be an automatic upgrade to version 9?

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ZRL1 wrote:

Any idea when Sophos will no longer continue to release security patches and protection updates for version 8? And when that point is finally reached, will there be an automatic upgrade to version 9?

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Hi,

We have announced end-of-life for version 8.0 for April 2014. This also includes end of support for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

Automatic upgrades are very tricky and we are looking at options. Our updating systems cannot distinguish between a PowerPC machine running 10.4 vs. an Intel machine running 10.8, so we are concerned about what might be the "worse" option (force upgrades which might break some people, or let people upgrade themselves when ready but expect some people never will).

Of these two options, does anyone have a preference?

Bob,

Maybe the solution has to be to update/upgrade/replace the updating system that you use? As it is, neither of the two options you describe is ideal. But, there are many software distributors using updating functions that clearly can and do distinguish not only OS platforms, but also OS versions, so I'm sure there must be other software available. Failing that, or just alternatively, maybe Apple themselves can offer some developer-level support to help you with this?

The biggest trouble I see, though, is that all those who have your current software, with in-built update function, will not get updated to any new mechanism UNTIL they actually uograde to a new version with an updated updater. But maybe it's possible for you to update the updater function through the existing automatic updates function, following which it would then be possible for the updating function to detect OS version and offer major version updates accordingly?

Hmmmm, I just re-read that last sentence - it does say what I meant, but I hope it makes sense to you! ;-)

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nigelh wrote:

Hmmmm, I just re-read that last sentence - it does say what I meant, but I hope it makes sense to you! ;-)

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Yes your sentence made sense, although inventing a third option isn't exactly the same as picking the "least bad" of the two choices.  :)

Not unrelated, I spent 1.5 hours in a meeting this morning talking about changes to our publishing system. Its not a simple problem (Sophos updates something like 15+ million endpoints across 30+ platforms multiple times per day) so there isn't a simple answer. But rest assured, we know what we want to do and how to do it.

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bobcook wrote:

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...Our updating systems cannot distinguish between a PowerPC machine running 10.4 vs. an Intel machine running 10.8, so we are concerned about what might be the "worse" option (force upgrades which might break some people, or let people upgrade themselves when ready but expect some people never will).

Of these two options, does anyone have a preference?

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Since version 8 does its own automatic updates, is it possible to include in the update an alert that users will notice saying "V 8 has reached end of life so 'click here' if you want to upgrade to version 9, but note that v 9 won't work with PPC Macs or those running 10.5 or earlier so don't 'click here' if you're in that group. V 8 will continue to function but virus signature updates and bug fixes will no longer be offered?" Judging from traffic on the Apple Communities, Sophos users are a very small subset of Mac users, and, like Lake Wobegon, all are "above average," so it should be sufficient.

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ZRL1 wrote:

Since version 8 does its own automatic updates, is it possible to include in the update an alert that users will notice saying "V 8 has reached end of life so 'click here' if you want to upgrade to version 9, but note that v 9 won't work with PPC Macs or those running 10.5 or earlier so don't 'click here' if you're in that group. V 8 will continue to function but virus signature updates and bug fixes will no longer be offered?" Judging from traffic on the Apple Communities, Sophos users are a very small subset of Mac users, and, like Lake Wobegon, all are "above average," so it should be sufficient.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Not sure we'll do this exact thing, some users don't really want pop-ups showing up unexpectedly. But the idea is good: we need a better way to send messages or solicit feedback from users. This forum is helpful but we are getting a very, very small number of our users visiting each month.

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bobcook wrote:

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ZRL1 wrote:

Since version 8 does its own automatic updates, is it possible to include in the update an alert that users will notice saying "V 8 has reached end of life so 'click here' if you want to upgrade to version 9, but note that v 9 won't work with PPC Macs or those running 10.5 or earlier so don't 'click here' if you're in that group. V 8 will continue to function but virus signature updates and bug fixes will no longer be offered?" Judging from traffic on the Apple Communities, Sophos users are a very small subset of Mac users, and, like Lake Wobegon, all are "above average," so it should be sufficient.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Not sure we'll do this exact thing, some users don't really want pop-ups showing up unexpectedly. But the idea is good: we need a better way to send messages or solicit feedback from users. This forum is helpful but we are getting a very, very small number of our users visiting each month.

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I force an "Update Now" from the Sophos menu when I start up so I don't normally get to see the automatic updates happen; when an update is done manually, the AutoUpdate window opens to show the progress. If that normally happens with automatic updates too, that might be an acceptable pop-up vehicle for the announcement, or if it doesn't, perhaps showing the window could be introduced as a "new feature." After all, it's comforting to know Anti-Virus is on the job.

Hello, I have maverick Mac os 10.9 and when I installed Sophos AVI from http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx it was installed as version 9.0.1 I believe I need 9.0.3 for maverick. How can I upgrade?

Thank You,

Melissa

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bobcook wrote:

Hi everyone,

Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac version 9.0 Home Edition is available: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

The headline feature for version 9.0 is Web Protection, offering protection to make web browsing safe. This is the same technology used by our corporate customers, learn more from our website: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/why-sophos/innovative-technology/web-protection.aspx

We've also worked hard to improve the existing features with a number of security and stability fixes. Version 9.0 supports Mac OS X 10.6 and up. This means we've discontinued support for all PowerPC systems and 10.4/10.5 Intel systems going forward.

You can upgrade an existing version 8 installation, or set up a brand new installation with the same installer. Either way, just download and run the installer app. Today you need to "opt-in" by manually running the installer to upgrade yourself, but later this year we'll migrate all version 8 installations automatically.

If you find problems, please post about it here. If you don't have any problems we'd also love to hear that too. If you find a showstopper issue, please let us know and then reinstall version 8 until we can fix it (the installer for version 8 is also still available from our website).

Regarding the Web Protection feature, you can test the two different types of protection with these two links:

URL reputation blocking: http://www.sophostest.com/ then click the "Malware" link about half-way down the page

Malicious content blocking: http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar_com.zip

In both cases, you will get a notification page instead of the real content when the protection features are enabled in the preferences.

Thanks for using our product, keep sending feedback.

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