IT Professionals

Upgrade Or No Go?

Posted by on Mar 10, 2010 | 6 Comments

Articles like this always end up puzzling me. Seriously, if there are people out there still using IE6, how about ISPs simply block their access with a temporary walled garden and an attached zip folder of the IE8 installer? Is that really so difficult?

Because this move alone would do WONDERS for cutting down on the various and yes, sometimes dated exploits we are always reading about on the Web. What about when it just affects a specific browser? Again, use browser detection for those folks who are shown through specs to be running an affected browser and automatically send them to the download page for the browser update.

Now clearly, I’d much rather avoid this kind of thing. But the truth is, if you are using a controlled OS like Windows or OS X, you are subject to what Microsoft and Apple allow you to do. The same basically applies to the ISPs, fair or not. All I can say is that in the end, we need to stop supporting users who cannot keep their systems up to date. And in instances where updates are not available to fix a security issue, make sure users of the Internet connection are aware of it.

[awsbullet:Malware Forensics]

  • EPGEEK

    Matt!….Matt!…. Have you gone to the dark side?? Let’s see here, you are suggesting that ISP’s block legitimate users just because they chose not to be driven not the Microsoft IE path? Seems the more just approach would be to ask the ISP’s to step up to the BOTNET menace and the spammers? ….but wait, that would shut off their major source of revenue?? why that may even enfringe on spammers “FREE speech”.

  • joeg2

    Yes, but unfortunate that many business’ (including my employer) that lock you into the old version. Why ? There is legacy software that will not perform on the new versions, has not been tested, vendors / suppliers / customers are using outdated software that does not work properly with tabs or updates, etc. There are even plug-ins that affect the way some vendor software works.

    While the issue is usually poorly written (I call it ‘ONE FOCUS’ software) code that was written years ago, and still makes it’s way into new releases because it does what it is supposed to do – the real business issue is money – Do you want to spend to upgrade so that you CAN update your systems, or do you keep what works and forbid or block updates ? Most companies seem to be keeping what works, not realizing the impact on the bottom line may not be as direct but that it will hurt with increased support costs.

    Sadly, some single-purpous code will never be updated because someone moved on or the company went out of buisiness. In those cases you may hurt the B2B stream if you block access due to an out-of-date-product.

  • AG Wright

    It’s real easy to put the responsibility on ISPs but the truth of the matter is that there are some people out there that are still using Windows 98. IE 6 is as good as it gets for them as Firefox no longer supports 98.
    Also I work for a small ISP. We have 5 employees and only one is full time. 3 of the part timers are web designers since that’s where we make enough money to keep the doors open. Exactly who is going to create this “walled garden”? How are our customers, those of them that can use it, supposed to download IE 8 over dial up?
    They have a hard enough time downloading antivirus updates.
    Not everybody has high speed access to the internet. Not everybody even has access to high speed access.
    One good thing about my customers is that with their slow access it’s pretty hard to do much damage to the internet as a whole. They have problems just sending and receiving mail in some areas due to the ancient copper lines and just sheer distance from the telephone central office.
    The answer isn’t limitations to what people can do. It’s in patient education of users and helping them to use what they have.

  • David

    I fully agree, however, my current employer requires us to use IE 6 (if os is XP, IE7 if Vista) and does not allow us to upgrade… If you do upgrade, and have to call the help desk, they will make you downgrade before providing further assistance… so for non-company sites, we use Firefox, avoiding the whole problem… At home and on other computers I manage, I keep them updated…

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    EpGeek: I am merely suggesting that someone puts their foot down on people being stupid. When so much of this avoidable, yet we end up in a crisis meltdown because end users are ill-informed and NOTHING has changed this, something needs to take place. ;)

    Keep the system up to date, end user sees nothing. Use a computer like a slot machine, ignoring updates and security, be treated like a red headed step child. Fairly straight forward.

    I don’t advocate blocking users, simply forcing them to participate in the rules of common sense. Read and write whatever you wish (to the user), but you will not be allowed to use the ISP as your careless playground to allow malware to infect others. It’s pretty simple, really.

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