Administration Features

Remote Administration

The activity screen in GateKeeper allows you to view what is going on in WinGate <B>in real time</b>. You can also perform administrative tasks, such as deleting (terminating) a session, banning a user, black-holing an IP address etc. Activity screen
The Email Queue Management pane in GateKeeper allows you to view currently pending email deliveries on a per-domain basis. From this panel, you can force a retry of selected domain delivery jobs, preview, bounce or delete individual messages, and a variety of other email queue management tasks. Email queue management
Using the remote command shell feature in WinGate, you can execute console commands on the WinGate server remotely. This allows you to do things like ping hosts, change the route table, run scripts, reboot servers etc. Remote Command Shell
Using WinGate Management - the remote administration and management tool for WinGate - you can monitor and control Internet usage, and administer your gateway from remote locations.
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Traffic monitoring

You can monitor the amount of data going in and out of a particular adapter, by right-clicking on the adapter in the network tab in GateKeeper, and selecting <B>Properties</B> then the performance tab. Adapter: Performance
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.
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Real-time activity monitoring

The activity screen in GateKeeper allows you to view what is going on in WinGate <B>in real time</b>. You can also perform administrative tasks, such as deleting (terminating) a session, banning a user, black-holing an IP address etc. Activity screen
The WinGate Management application shows all WinGate activity in real time as it happens (not polled). This includes client machines connected to the internet, machines on the internet connecting back to WinGate services, or internal maintenance tasks and system activity.

If you see activity you do not like, you can terminate it. There are also simple shortcuts to blocking similar access in the future, for example Blacklisting the IP address
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Logging

There are 2 primary purposes for logging in WinGate:
  • Diagnostic logging: for the identification and tracking of issues
  • Usage logging: for recording requests made, and resource consumed, for reporting on usage.

Prior to WinGate 7, these 2 functions were performed by a single logging system, which resulted in compromises since diagnostic data was interspersed with data used for reporting on usage.

From WinGate 7 onwards, these 2 functions have been separated out so that each one can be better fulfilled. For diagnostic logging, the previous log format was extended but largely retained. For usage logging, the W3C format was adopted, as it is in widespread use and supported by a large number of log analysers.


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DHCP Services

The DHCP server is capable of running in a fully, semi-automatic or fully manual mode. This relates to the auto-creation of configuration information (scopes) when DHCP requests are received. In most cases, no user configuration of the DHCP server is required (unlike many other DHCP servers), however if required, the user still has the ability to override default settings (i.e. specify a different DNS server or default gateway to use). DHCP Server: Mode
The DHCP server settings are the database of scopes and options associated with them. This is also where DHCP reservations are created, and global system options are set. DHCP Server: Settings
When a DHCP lease is assigned to a DHCP client, various options may be set. Options are able to be set on a global, or per-scope, or per-reservation level allowing a great deal of flexibility. DHCP Server: Lease options
WinGate DHCP services allow the definition of additional DHCP options (Enterprise license required). These options are useful for features such as proxy auto-detect, and can also be used for site-specified functions. DHCP Definitions
The DHCP panel shows active DHCP leases. DHCP Panel
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.
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Secure Remote Command-line access

Using the remote command shell feature in WinGate, you can execute console commands on the WinGate server remotely. This allows you to do things like ping hosts, change the route table, run scripts, reboot servers etc. Remote Command Shell
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:
  • 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.
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Scheduled Events

WinGate has a built-in scheduler that allows you to define schedules of events that will be triggered.

Processing of the triggered event is possible with any installed event handler, such as Flow-chart policy, Email, run application, etc. A large number of internal WinGate functions may be triggered in this way including:

  • WinGate maintenance activities, such as rolling over log files
  • Starting or stopping of WinGate services
  • Purging the HTTP cache
  • Executing command lines (e.g. external batch files or scripts)
  • plus others
You may run multiple tasks with any particular scheduled event that you define, and using WinGate management you can force a scheduled event to be processed at any time.
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