Upgrade Protection allows you to get any major upgrades (eg 4.x to 5.x) free of charge when they are released during the period of validity of your Upgrade Protection.

When you purchase a VPOP3 licence or a version upgrade you will receive 12 months free upgrade protection. After that time, if you want to continue with upgrade protection, you must purchase it at a cost of 25% of the full retail price per 12 months.

No, Upgrade Protection is totally optional.

If you don't have upgrade protection, you can still receive minor upgrades free of charge. If a major upgrade is released, then you can still purchase it at a reduced price, currently 50% of the full retail price, or you can decide to stay with your existing version

If you purchased VPOP3 over 12 months ago and have not renewed the Upgrade Protection, it will have lapsed. In this case, you cannot renew it at a later stage. You will need to wait until a new version upgrade is available, then purchase that, which will come with 12 months worth of Upgrade Protection. Then you will be able to renew that Upgrade Protection as normal.

Occasionally we may do promotions where you can renew your Upgrade Protection as if it had not lapsed, but this is purely at the discretion of Paul Smith Computer Services.

We are currently planning on releasing VPOP3 version 5.0 in 3Q 2011. After that we are planning on releasing a new version at least every 12-18 months. This will mean that if you like always having the latest version, it will be worth keeping the Upgrade Protection current.

Just before your Upgrade Protection expires, you should receive an email asking you if you wish to renew. This will tell you the renewal price and give you a link to be able to purchase the renewal.