Network Associates (NA) has told users of its Management Console antivirus tool that they don't have to upgrade to its replacement product.

One user complained to vnunet.com that he could not get support for Management Console and was unable to add any new virus signatures to the product, even though his two-year support contract still had six months to run.

"I have been informed by NA that support is no longer available for this product. I can therefore not add any new virus signatures," he said.

"NA's response to my insistence that it should continue to support the product for which I have paid, or provide a free upgrade to its replacement, was basically: 'Tough. Buy the new product.'"

NA explained that Management Console was originally a free product supplied by Dr Solomon's prior to NA's acquisition of the company in 1998, and that development was continued so that it would accept the new combined Dr Solomon's/McAfee antivirus software.

"The problem with 'recognising' virus signature files on the old Management Edition that the customer refers to can be overcome by a manual change on the product at the customer level, using a script provided by NA," said the company.

"This allows the Management Edition to work with new .dat files. This is the solution we are pushing to users of the older management product."