In the near future Google, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla will be disabling the use of older security protocols (TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1) in their respective browsers. Due to these changes, users of the Patient Booking Gateway and Web Appointment Book need to ensure TLS 1.2 has been enabled in their environment before the older protocols are disabled.
How does this affect the Patient Booking Gateway or Web Appointment Book?
If you are a user of the Booking Gateway or Web Appointment Book this means you are effectively ‘hosting’ a website on one of your computers. If your machine does not support TLS 1.2, users will no longer be able to connect to your Booking Gateway and Web Appointment Book after these changes are made.
Which operating systems are affected?
Users running Windows 7 (SP1) and Server 2008 R2 will need to enable TLS 1.2 manually, as per Option 1 or Option 2 below.
Newer operating systems (Windows 8 and above) should be unaffected, and no further action is required.
Older operating systems (Server 2003, Windows XP) cannot use TLS 1.2, and users will need to upgrade or migrate as per Option 3.
If you will be affected by this change, you have the following options:
Option 1:
Enable TLS 1.2 on your host computer.
Confirm you are running Windows 7 (SP1) or Server 2008 R2.
Ensure you have installed all available Windows Updates on the host machine.
Download and run the Patient Booking Gateway Security Hotfix on the machine hosting your Booking Gateway, following the prompts.
Restart your computer.
Option 2:
Contact Smartsoft for assistance.
Go to www.smartsoft.com.au/support.
Open a support case with a description of ‘Booking Gateway Security Fix’.
Option 3:
Upgrade or migrate to a Microsoft supported operating system.
As discussed in this article, Microsoft is no longer providing security updates or support for PCs with Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. By moving your web applications to a newer operating system you are less vulnerable to security risks, and the newer environment should have TLS 1.2 enabled by default. Please ensure you have taken appropriate backups before updating your operating system.
For assistance migrating your Front Desk products to another machine, please open a support case on our website: www.smartsoft.com.au/support.