                                                                    May 1995
    Upgrading versus Updating
    -------------------------
    The user of anti-virus software are accustomed to update their AV
    software at regular intervals. Updates are necessary if your anti virus
    is a scanner. The spreading of new viruses in the past has been
    relatively slow. It took a year, sometimes even two, for new viruses to
    become common, in a certain geographical area. Now, with the
    availability of the networks, virus spreading takes much less than
    before. The virus exchanges (VX) has also largely contributed to the
    rapid dissemination of viruses. Once a virus is in the news, thousands
    of collection owners are looking to add the hot item to their
    collection, and quite many viruses escaped in the wild this way.

    Certain viruses have set records and became common within three to six
    months from their first being reported. Therefore, scanner based
    anti-virus software need updating, at three months intervals at the
    longest. Some products are updated with shorter intervals. It is quite
    common that the producer of a scanner announces a special release when a
    new virus hits the news. Such were the cases of Junkie and KAOS4. In
    most cases the hysteria proved to be overblown.

    InVircible has a virus scanner too. Its database contains only the most
    common and widespread viruses, just about a couple of hundreds, which
    are about 5% or less of the total number of viruses. Naturally, it takes
    quite a long time, a year or longer, for a virus to become really
    widespread. Only few viruses make it, and this is why IV's scanner has
    very few viruses added to its database, annually.

    NetZ Computing keeps publishing new versions of InVircible on a regular
    basis. Sometimes the new version contains a new virus in its database,
    but in most cases it does not. The real purpose of these apparently
    updates is totally different. Since in most cases they do not contain
    scanner updates, then we will call them what they really are: upgrades.

    With the constant flux of users' questions, wishes and suggestions, we
    often improve a certain technique, or fix a bug, or even more likely -
    add a new feature. If you look in the HISTORY.TXT file, you will notice
    that there isn't a single version that announced a new virus was added
    to IV's database. The differences between versions, or revisions, is due
    to new features, or changes introduced in basic techniques.

    Do you need to upgrade?
    -----------------------
    If the current version of InVircible works properly on your machine,
    then it's unlikely that you need to upgrade. Unless you want to, because
    of a new features included in the newer version.

    A text file named WHATSNEW.xxx is provided with each upgrade. In the
    file you'll find a list and description of the improved and of the new
    features. Before upgrading your current version, read the document to
    decide if you need the upgrade.

    There is no need to upgrade InVircible more frequently than once to
    twice a year, at the most. In the five years since its first version,
    InVircible proved to be efficient against the viruses that appeared
    since then, with or without the upgrades.

    Network administrators are advised to upload the upgraded version to the
    server, to the directory from which IVlogin is run (see appendix A in
    the manual). This will automatically upgrade the IV version on the
    workstation hard disks, when the user logs into the network.

    How to upgrade a licensed user.
    -------------------------------
    The purchase of a license for the utilization of InVircible is for life,
    for the specific version that you purchased only, and provides you the
    possibility to upgrade without additional charges, for a period of one
    year, from the date of the production of the software. The installation
    of the IV license to your hard disk earmarks the HARD DISK, not the
    software, as an IV licensee. The InVircible software recognizes the IV
    earmark.

    To upgrade from a lower version, download the newer InVircible version
    from the BBS or network service of your choice. Open the ZIP file into a
    temporary directory, change directory to the one containing the new
    version and run the IVB.EXE program. Watch if the "Licensed" label
    appears at the upper left corner of the screen. If yes, then your
    license is still valid for this upgrade and you can then proceed with
    INSTALL/FAST. It will overwrite the older version with the new one and
    it will inherit the license of the former version.

    To upgrade a licensed floppy, format the diskette (deleting all files
    won't suffice, there is a hidden file on these floppies, this is why it
    needs formatting) and copy the new version files to it. When done, issue
    the command IVB /A A: (or B:) to install the IV Armor on the floppy.

    In case the newer version indicates "Sentry" instead of "Licensed" when
    running the newer software, then your license term for upgrades expired.
    You can then choose to purchase a new license for another term, or stay
    with your current version, for as long as you wish.

    Once you changed the license from a 6.01x version to 6.02, on your hard
    disk, then the lower versions will not recognize the hard disk as
    licensed anymore. Yet the distribution floppy is valid for both 6.01x
    and 6.02 versions.

    For licensed users working in OS/2 and Windows 95.
    --------------------------------------------------
    To upgrade your license from version 6.01x to 6.02, to reflect both in
    DOS and in the 32 bit OS DOS shell, you will need to run InVircible ONCE
    in a real DOS environment.

    The simplest is to boot from a DOS floppy and run a copy of IVB or
    IVSCAN (from version 6.02A).

    Updating the 6.02 Rescue Diskette.
    ----------------------------------
    IVB 6.02A went through functional enhancements. Therefore, the IVB
    signatures of the newer version are no more compatible with those of
    the lower versions.

    The default name of the signatures' file has been changed in version
    6.02A to "IVB˙.NTZ". Note the "space" after IVB, it's actually the ascii
    character 255 (hold the Alt key and type 255 on the right hand numeric
    keypad, then release the Alt key). The purpose of the change is to keep
    the older signatures without overwriting them through the process of
    upgrading. After you checked that all files comply with the former
    signatures, you may erase the old signatures with the older IVMENU,
    selecting the "Remove" [signatures] option from the main menu. The newer
    version will automatically establish its database files through the
    INSTALL sequence or the daily check.

    For the same reason, it's also important that you renew your rescue
    diskette AFTER having successfully upgraded to 6.02A. The same applies
    to IV Sentry users.

    Next version Preview package.
    -----------------------------
    A preview version of InVircible is now available on the author's ftp
    (ftp.datasrv.co.il in /pub/usr/netz/preview).

    The preview package consists of the current version, with the recent
    fixes and improvements that were made in InVircible. The preview
    directory contains a text file named WHATSNEW.PRE, with the description
    of the upgrades contained in the package.

    The purpose of the preview version is to let as many as possible users
    to test the fixes and improvements in IV and to fix problems at an early
    stage, before the release to the public.
