Features - Administration

Administrative features

Remote Administration

Using GateKeeper, the remote administration and management tool for WinGate, you can monitor and control Internet usage, and administer your gateway from remote locations.

Activity screen Remote Command Shell Email queue management

Logging and user auditing

WinGate contains a comphrensive logging subsystem, which can record data in two different formats, database and text file, as well as store this information 3 different ways:

  • Firstly there is per Service logging, which can record all session information that goes through each of the services / proxies that WinGate runs, such as WWW, FTP or SMTP.
  • Secondly, there is per User logging, or Auditing, where all activity for specific users can be monitored and stored, for review at a later date. As well as all session information from all services, user authentications and data usage are also logged.
  • Finally, there is History logging, which is a global database of all traffic which has passed through WinGate, and with the use of GateKeeper's History pane the last 2000 entries can be displayed, for quick and easy access to what has just happened on your server.

User accounting

WinGate offers per user accounting, ideal for Network Administrators and Internet Cafes alike.

WinGate keeps track of such information as bytes sent to client, bytes recieved for client, and seconds online, as well as allowing user specified rates (charges) for each type.

Through a combination of this user accounting and WinGate policies, users can be restricted in their internet access, when they have spent too long online, or reached a download limit, for example.

 

Activity screenReal-time activity monitoring

Real time activity monitoring is a feature of WinGate which allows you, when connected to WinGate with GateKeeper to view all activity of WinGate in real time. This includes client machines connected to the internet, machines on the internet connecting back to WinGate services, or internal maintenance tasks and system activity.

As well as being able to view activity in real time, you can also control it. If you see activity you do not like, you can terminate it. There are also simple shortcuts to blocking similar access in the future, such as:

  • Blacklisting the IP address
  • Banning the URL
  • Disabling the user account

Scheduler

WinGate has a built-in scheduler that allows you to define tasks that will be performed on a regular basis or specific date and time. A large number of internal WinGate functions may be triggered in this way including:

  • WinGate maintenance activities, such as rolling over log files etc
  • enabling and disabling of user accounts
  • Starting or stopping of WinGate services
  • Purging the HTTP cache
  • Executing command lines (e.g. external batch files or scripts)
  • Dialing an internet connection
  • plus others

You may run multiple tasks with any particular scheduled event that you define, and using GateKeeper you can force a scheduled event to be processed at any time. The progress of these events is displayed in the System Activity area of the activity panel in GateKeeper

Centralised WinGate Client configuration

DHCP Services

DHCP is a means for networked computers to get their TCP/IP networking settings from a central server. Importantly, DHCP assigns IP addresses and other TCP/IP configuration parameters automatically.

WinGate DHCP is different from other DHCP servers, in that it can even figure out what IP addresses to allocate without the administrator having to predefine pools of addresses (scopes). It can also figure out how to set the clients' gateway and several other parameters too, which means that not even the administrator needs to be a TCP/IP expert to operate the WinGate DHCP server.

Full manual override of all automatic settings is also available in order to allow administrators to cater for their specific requirements.

DHCP Server: Mode DHCP Server: Settings DHCP Server: Lease options

DHCP Panel DHCP Definitions

Adapter: PerformanceTraffic monitoring

WinGate allows you to monitor all traffic coming in to or going out of the WinGate machine.

Traffic information is displayed on a per-interface basis, thus allowing you to see how much traffic is coming in to the WinGate machine from your LAN, as well as how much is going out to the internet, and with what level of performance.

Secure Remote Command-line access

WinGate provides access to the command shell processor on NT based operating systems (Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003). This allows you to remotely and securely run multiple instances of the cmd.exe command interpreter on the remote server, allowing you to remotely perform operations such as: Remote Command Shell

  • creation and deletion of files on the server
  • modifications to the server route table using route.exe
  • Check connectivity from the server using ping.exe or tracert.exe
  • Reboot the server or other servers using Shutdown.exe
  • Connect to network resources on the LAN connected to the server

Plus most applications that will run from the command line.

You can choose the user account that the cmd.exe process is executed in, and the input and output is transferred over the encrypted GateKeeper control channel, providing security.