Windows 98 Critical Updates and June 30th 2006 cut off date. Really going to happen? How critical is this?

Windows 98 Critical Updates and June 30th 2006 cut off date. Really
going to happen? How critical is this?

Still have several networked Windows 98SE machines at a small
company, in addition to XP machines. All of the machines feature a
corporate anti-virus scanner, etc. Network is protected by a Cisco
Firewall.

Will keeping these machines on the network leave new security holes?
Most of Microsoft's critical updates seem to be for IE6 more than
anything.

These machines still suit our needs fine, so I'd hate to have to
replace them all just because of new security issues. Most of them
are 600 mhz, 128 megs ram. Our applications require more like 166
mhz, 32 megs of ram, etc. Too old to be worth investing in XP, but so
far we have yet to find a good reason to replace them.

Some of the machines do surf the web, usually with FireFox, check
e-mail, etc. I can handle a machine here and there getting infected,
but i'm more concerned about a network wide attack, and most
importantly our Windows 2000 server.

What are other small companies doing about the June 30th issue?

Thanks for any advice.



.

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