Here's a REAL features request...

[snake]

Hello,

I want to list some features which I would love to see in Wingate, and to make my point I will even explain why I want/need these nifty tricks for my server.


- Bandwidth management:
The numero uno uncho on my wish-list, advanced bandwidth management in my opinion will be the killer feature for Wingate, allowing it to compete with advanced hardware routers like the Nomadix USG (which my company is presently considering to purchase in favour of Wingate). The kind of primitive traffic shaping done by BandwidthController would be a nice start, but ideally, Wingate needs to be able to specify, asymmetrically or symmetrically, data rates on an IP or MAC address basis, preferably with support for bursting. An additional cool trick would be to give users varying data rates depending on whether they are accessing the Internet or a local server (like a local web server or FTP) I'm sure that not all users need bandwidth control, and Qbik might consider providing bandwidth management to people with Pro/enterprise licenses.


UPnP:
UPnP is on my wish-list because all my users who have windows XP keep bitching to me about not being able to use windows and MSN messenger's voice and file-transfer. I have read comments by Qbik staff that UPnP would be easy to implement, but opens security holes. Suggestion: include it as a feature that is disabled by default, and have wingate spit out security warnings galore when the administrator enables it. But let us decide for ourselves if UPnP is worth the security risk or not!


H.323 and SIP:
While MSN messenger uses UPnP to do voice, video, and file transfers, most of the competing software uses H.323 and/or SIP to function. I know that the latest version of Wingate supports H.323, but (as described in another thread) I can't get 5.2.2 to function properly on my system.


IP routing:
I could route public IP's using Windows 2000, but I wouldn't be able to apply policies and bandwidth control to public IP users. So it would be nice if I could do it in Wingate Extended Networking, alongside NAT. For us this would allow us to give business customers public IP addresses, both single addresses and IP ranges. Ideally I could then apply bandwidth management rules to the whole thing and be a happy camper.


Other wish-list features:

- I've had problems with DNS reverse-lookups in NAT requests, making policies difficult to enforce (like server ban lists for example)

- A web browser admin interface would be nice

- Take the log-file to a new level, and allow users to log in with a username and password, to monitor their own traffic statistics!

- VPN support, whether traversing the NAT or through IP routing, would be nice offer to business clients

- Better user account management would be nice, I've found it impossible to set an expiry date for users that works. It would be nice to configure account classes or types, to make adding a new user easier. Why not a new user wizard while yer at it :)

- How about a RADIUS server, so we can use wingate to run dial-up access servers?

I hope my wish list isn't totally outrageous...
Regards,

[dataking]

Greetings Snake,

a very impressive list indeed...one thing though....all your features are to DIE for and stuff...

and u want all these features in the sub $1000 price that wingate offers for its unlimited user PRO edition?!!...hmmm....i mean a commercial radius and public IP routing system would set you back a sweet $2000 or more!!!!!!and this is without all the other wicked features that u asked for and wingate has already!!.....


but i say again....its a sweet ass feature list none the less!...


regards

Shayan

[Rroff]

I'd rather they just concentrated on making a version with fewer bugs and thats actually half stable, I haven't seen a decent release of wingate yet, I can't believe I spent money on this... :(