AtGuard

[WolfBeast]

Posting here since the other boards don't seem to really apply to my question. Feel free to regard this off-topic or move it to another board.

I was wondering what about the licensing? Obviously AtGuard has been more or less abandoned by WRQ and Symantec (they made their own (probably converted to higher level language with all the problems that causes) version based on it... needless to say I'm still using 3.22 myself which is IMHO the best firewall out there).
How will a "new" version of AtGuard be licensed? I was initially even looking into if I could add the old version of AtGuard to an archive as "abandoned", when I found the revival project here. Since the AtGuard engine/core is so stable and light on resources, apart from some small issues like the logging and apparently a problem in DNSfilt that I ran into on XP, I wouldn't expect much changes to be made. With Vista around the corner it may not be viable to develop for much longer anyway since the lower levels that O.S. will work on, are incompatible with the current NT setup...

Can someone, possibly in the company board, explain what the plans are for licensing of AtGuard if a new version is released, and what the position is on the old, existing 3.22 version?

[Prasantha]

Unfortunately, I am not ready to disclose all the details yet. But I will answer some of your questions.

We have no affiliation with Symantec. Our only relationship with WRQ is that we legally obtained the rights to revive AtGuard and move it forward.

Our plans as an independent software vendor are to develop AtGuard and license it to the public for a fee. Unfortunately, for several reasons, we cannot treat existing licensees of AtGuard version 3.22 or eariler as our customers and as such we will not recognize the license they may have already acquired from WRQ. For version 3.3, you'll have to license AtGuard from us.

Vista does appear to AtGuard, from a windows kernel prospective, as essentially a brand new OS and therefore, a lot of recoding will be required to ensure 100% compatibility and optimum performance. But, we believe that work will be worth it as customers will continue to find value in AtGuard.

[WolfBeast]