As security protocols evolve and are replaced by newer, more secure versions, server administrators face the issue of removing support for deprecated protocols. For example, server administrators are currently facing the deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple are removing their own support for TLS 1.0/1.1, which means that server owners need to do the same if they want to communicate with these organizations. For example, Gmail will no longer accept mail from servers that still broadcast support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1.
That means server administrators need to disable TLS 1.0/1.1 on their servers and adopt newer TLS versions. This may seem relatively simple, but the problem is not all servers support TLS versions beyond 1.1. For example, Windows Server 2008 R2 doesn't support TLS 1.2.
Therefore, server administrators may need to plan a server OS upgrade in addition to disabling support for TLS 1.0/1.1. Thankfully, vendors are very good at providing information about which version of the OS supports what version of TLS.
Microsoft Windows Server
Microsoft offers a chart of which versions of Windows support newer TLS versions. We've provided a link to the chart on their website, but the TL:DR; of it is this:
TLS 1.2 is supported on Windows Server 2012 and above.
TLS 1.3 is supported on Windows Server 2022 and above.
ANY version of Windows Server below Server 2012 DOES NOT SUPPORT TLS 1.2. In addition, there are no workarounds for this. And, if there are, they are not, can not, and will not be supported by SmarterTools.
Keep In Mind
Of course, if a server administrator is facing an OS upgrade anyway, they may as well upgrade to the latest version of that server OS that's available rather than settling for the first version that supports newer protocols. Doing so means that systems will be protected for years to come, and receive consistent security fixes. In addition, recent versions of SmarterMail will run best on the most recent versions of whichever server OS you are using.