Microsoft recently announced that they would discontinue support for older versions of Windows on January 12, 2016. As of that date, only Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 are still supported with new security patches and updates for desktop PCs. Likewise, only Windows Server 2008 R2 and later versions of Windows Server will be supported with security patches and updates.
As a reminder, the National Association of REALTORS® is currently in the process of upgrading the REALTOR Ecommerce Network to version 1.2 of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol which is used by web servers to provide secure communications over computer networks. Due to this update:
- For Rapattoni Magic AMS customers that use the REALTOR Ecommerce Network to process credit card payments, desktop PCs running older operating systems will need to be updated to Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10, with Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5 or later.
- For Rapattoni Magic AMS customers that host an Internet Member Services (IMS) site, the IMS server will need to run Windows Server 2008 R2 or later in order to continue processing payments via the REALTOR Ecommerce Network using TLS 1.2.
Please be aware that NAR is scheduled to complete the TLS 1.2 update by the end of 1Q 2016, and desktop PCs and servers running older operating system versions which do not support TLS 1.2 will potentially lose access to the REALTOR Ecommerce Network at that time unless they are updated to one of the Windows versions listed above.
While these requirements do not apply to Rapattoni Magic AMS and IMS sites that use other services to process credit card payments, we still recommend updating to Microsoft’s supported versions of Windows in order to ensure that your desktop PCs and servers continue to receive the latest security patches and updates.
Note that Rapattoni Magic AMS customers hosted in the Rapattoni datacenter have already been updated to TLS 1.2 and this notice only applies for customers that host their own Magic AMS servers.
For more information on the TLS 1.2 protocol, click here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security
Please contact Rapattoni’s network support team at 866-730-7115 if you have any questions or would like assistance with the update process.