WinGate 6.0: Your Gateway to Internet Connectivity for the Entire LAN Your Gateway to Internet Connectivity for the Entire LAN Forrest Stroud
An Impressive Set of Features and Services
WinGate sports an attractive and user-friendly interface, and getting up and running with the client is relatively straightforward, although there's a slightly steeper learning curve compared to a client like MidPoint. WinGate supports a wide variety of Internet protocols to ensure that your networked users can fully utilize the Internet, with support for HTTP (Web), HTTPS/SSL (secure Web), SMTP and POP3 (e-mail), NNTP (UseNET news), Telnet, FTP, and IRC services just scratching the surface of WinGate's extensive set of services.
WinGate can also be configured with RTSP proxy capabilities for RealMedia and QuickTime support or with AutoSOCKS/SOCKS5 server support, which allows SOCKS-compatible clients to access the Internet as if the client was directly connected to the 'net. As is the case with MidPoint, WinGate also utilizes a shared cache that allows users to quickly access Web pages that have already been downloaded by others without having to reconnect to the 'net.
All major Internet applications — including browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox and mail clients like Eudora and Outlook Express — can be automatically configured to utilize WinGate's sharing capabilities (with or without the use of AutoSOCKS). And when necessary, switching back to a guest computer's local non-shared modem is a simple process that involves automatically restoring the normal proxy settings of your applications.
Additional WinGate features include the ability to act as a general proxy server (eliminates the need for each workstation to have its own IP address), powerful firewall capabilities for authorizing and controlling the information that passes between the network and the Internet, logging and auditing capabilities, remote control and user authentication services via the integrated GateKeeper client, and mapped links (for applications like IRC clients and newsreaders that generally lack support for traversing firewalls or working through proxy servers).
Ever Evolving, Ever Improving
Recent feature additions and enhancements have helped to make WinGate even more powerful and easy to use. Some of the most recent additions that made their debut in version 6 include DMZ support, support for NTLM and several other authentication methods, enhanced support for Terminal Services and Active Directory, a major overhaul of the Dynamic Binding service system, bandwidth control, connection failover, remote gateway monitoring and selection, an ARP responder, and support for SSL connections for POP3, SMTP, and HTTP.
These enhancements follow those of other recent major releases, such as a handy Network Setup Wizard and support for plug-ins, both of which made their debut in version 4. The Network Setup Wizard is designed to guide WinGate users step-by-step through the installation and configuration procedures. The addition of plug-ins support coincided with the release of two powerful plug-ins that are available for free download along with the evaluation release.
Kaspersky AntiVirus for Wingate, the first of the two plug-ins, adds Kaspersky Labs' scanning technology for scanning and detecting viruses, worms, and Trojan horses in email or attachments, FTP, and web (HTTP) traffic. The second plug-in, PureSight for WinGate, is a content recognition system with artificial intelligence technology that scans incoming traffic for inappropriate content and prevents it from reaching the network.
Rounding out the list of new features and improvements in recent versions are Virtual Private Networks (VPN) support with Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) capabilities, a fully functional email server, SMTP Proxy services, Windows NT user database integration and NT authentication, a single installer for all 32-bit Windows OSes, a user import/export wizard, and NAT Cascading and port redirection.
Overall
Overall, if you're looking for an inexpensive way to both share your Internet connection across the entire network and also protect your networked computers from the multitude of Internet-based threats, WinGate offers an impressive collection of features and services in an attractively priced package that is sure to please even the stingiest of penny pushers.
Pros: Easily share modems/Internet connections over networks, effective protection from Internet-based threats, wide array of features and services, relatively inexpensive
Cons: Can present a slight learning curve for new users, questionable cost effectiveness for smaller networks/home use
