Peter Farley wrote: >Can you point to a page or document that describes the IBM policy >for HACP version upgrades? I am concerned that if I buy a copy but >receive an earlier-than-current version (e.g., V13.0 vs the more current >V14.0) from a non-IBM distributor that I would not be entitled to >upgrade without another charge.
No danger of that. There’s no media shipment for these products, not without a media part number and additional charge anyway. You’re not going to get some stale box that gathered dust on a shelf somewhere. There’s no box. It’s the 21st century now. :-) When you purchase the license from an authorized IBM Business Partner that company registers your entitlement(s) in IBM’s Passport Advantage or Passport Advantage Express system. (“Express” is for individuals and small businesses.) You can then electronically download your entitled software products directly from IBM Passport Advantage, in this case Personal Communications and Host On-Demand. If you want Version 13, and if it’s still available for download (yes, usually past versions are kept around), then you grab that. If you want Version 14, you grab that. If you want both, you grab both. Any new versions or releases of that product released during your Subscription & Support term are also ordinarily available for download. And you can open problem cases with IBM during your S&S term if you need to. This particular license (IBM Host Access Client Package) is a one-time charge perpetual license with annually renewable S&S. There’s a renewal part number, but that’s easy since you should get invitations to renew before it’s due without having to worry about digging up the part number. If you don’t renew your S&S you’re still licensed to run the version(s) released during your active S&S period, and prior versions. If you want to resume S&S after an interruption you can, but there’s a different reinstatement part number for that — and a higher price, of course. Service updates and fixes are typically available via IBM Fix Central, so don’t assume what you download from Passport Advantage is the latest build. Check Fix Central, too. You can subscribe to notices and alerts for your product(s). By the way, there’s a 90 day trial version of IBM Personal Communications for Windows available here (direct link, subject to change): https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/us-en/signup?formid=urx-31769 I just checked, and you can currently download any of these Personal Communications 90 day trial versions: 14.0.4, 14.0, 13.0, 12.0.2, or 6.0.14. Ordinarily you’ll want the latest, but you have choices. I believe one of the significant changes in Version 14.0 is that it’s a 64-bit Windows program, so you might need 13.0 if you’re still running a 32-bit flavor of Windows. Obviously IBM’s official documents govern if I’ve misstated anything. — — — — — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM zSystems/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
