Missing features

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Missing features

Postby Don » Oct 01 03 6:39 am

Hello everyone - please forgive me if this seems remedial, but I have been looking for a few necessary features in Wingate since at least version 4.0 and they never seem to be addressed.

THe first issue is that with every client that upgrades their Wingate, I am forced to try to rummage around to find a compatible version of Gatekeeper and keep them all available so that I can remotely administer their sites. This seems not only counter-intuitive but counter productive! or is it just me?

The second issue, one that I run into time and time again, is clients that have their mail server BEHIND the firewall - but can't use Wingate to proxy their outbound mail requests ... because wingate requires that their be an outbound RELAY host .. and most ISPs will not relay mail!

There doesn't appear to be a simply plug-in for this option, nor does Wingate address this issue. Here in the US, a company called Deerfield wants to sell us yet another product that installs along WITH Wingate, but it's a complicated and unintuitive product that still doesn't seem to solve what is a simple need - to have Wingate simply proxy the outbound SMTP requests.

1) Anyone know if Qbik ever plans to address these issues?
2) where do I go for prior Gatekeeper versions?
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Postby adrien » Oct 01 03 10:38 am

Firstly wrt GateKeeper I can feel your pain there - we have to change the version number of the GateKeeper protocol every time we add a new member variable to an object that gets transmitted between WinGate and GateKeeper.

This happens every version we release - normally it is not a problem since people are not in the main administering many remote sites.

We can make an archive available of old GateKeepers, otherwise you can extract a file from the WinGate installs by running the install with a /X extension.

As for mail, we have no problem with mail here. I am not sure exactly what you are trying to do, but WinGate does not require your ISP to relay mail for you - it will deliver the mail directly to the end SMTP server.

How do you have mail configured? Our main mail server is behind WinGate, and relays to our border mail server on our gateway which delivers the mail - that is running WinGate mail.
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Postby Don » Oct 01 03 11:34 am

The SMTP server proxy requires a internal address for delivering mail and and external address for SENDING mail. If you uncheck the "deliver mail via" box, outbound mail fails.

Version 5 if it matters

D
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Re: Missing features

Postby tim » Oct 01 03 1:25 pm

Don wrote:THe first issue is that with every client that upgrades their Wingate, I am forced to try to rummage around to find a compatible version of Gatekeeper and keep them all available so that I can remotely administer their sites. This seems not only counter-intuitive but counter productive! or is it just me?


On the local network you can use the Logfile server to download the correct version of GateKeeper for any version of WinGate since 2.1.

This isn't a perfect solution we know, and we do intend to correct this problem.

Tim
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Postby adrien » Oct 01 03 2:56 pm

So are you using the SMTP mapping or the SMTP server in WinGate?

I can't find what you mean by a "deliver mail via" check box.....

What are you interface settings? Check in GateKeeper Options->Advanced->Network Interfaces, and make sure it makes sense for what is an internal or external interface. This affects whether mail is deemed inbound or outbound etc.

Adrien
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Postby Don » Oct 02 03 7:02 am

Thank you for your responses. First, I’d like to editorialize a bit. The problems I see in the computer industry are becoming very consistent from product to product. As we get more demanding in what we attempt to do we tend to get focused .. and then we get divided: The camp of people that live and BREATHE the product versus the ones that merely use it. The most perfect example is SENDMAIL. If you KNOW sendmail like the back of your hand … everything it does is simple, straight forward and easy. But if you DON’T …. it’s just a quagmire. I pity the Sysadmin that one day, out of the blue, needs to know how to fix something in Sendmail and tries to learn it merely by reading the RFC. In all of these cases, I am in the latter camp rather than the former. Now … with that said …..

I support a number of systems that use Sendmail behind a firewall. The VERSION of Sendmail is 8.12 and for reasons that I don’t want to get into, porting a later version or moving the mailer to another system is NOT an option (don’t ask … it just isn’t). Needless to say, sendmail 8.12 is a spammer’s dream – it’s just about THE most open relay in the world. Wingate is the proxy …. and we attempt to use it as a spam filter as well. Now KEEPING in mind that I don’t live or breath mailers, filters or firewalls, be advised that I just muddle through as best I can. (whew). OK. Now on to the actual situation.

Wingate SMTP has, in the general tab, an option for forwarding INBOUND to one place and OUTBOUND mail to another. The thing IS … the “interfaces” tab doesn’t have a method to identify which interface is IN and which is OUT. So when I allow Wingate to accept connections on ANY interface we become Spam Relay Central. My “fix” (if you can call it that) was to duplicate the SMTP services .. have one accept connections ONLY on the external IP and use the “forward option” under “general” to send to the sendmail system … then have another service that accepts connections ONLY on the internal connection and forward ONLY on the external IP. Now … this works .. BUT ……

If I uncheck the “forward outbound mail via ISP” box on the general tab of my OUTBOUND service …. mail goes NOWHERE.

Meanwhile … as a side note …. I have the “mail filter” on the inbound set up to reject all mail not addressed to “domain.com” (for example) and SPAM testing reveals that Wingate DOES reject requests addressed to “spam.com” (for example) .. but if the inbound mail system sends a Rcpt To: that is NULL, Wingate DOES pass the mail on to the internal sendmail program … which is too stupid to know that it’s about to be used as a spam relay.

I have been searching the net (in vain) for a mailer program that would accept mail (from anyone to anyone) until it got the “absolute, whole, FINAL” recipient and THEN decide if the mail is for us or not .. but nothing (in all of life, it seems) is that simple.

Now … with al that SAID …. I wouldn’t at ALL be opposed to PAYING someone to set up whatever I need to just GET this problem off my back.
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Postby adrien » Oct 02 03 9:08 am

OK

It sounds like you are using an SMTP mapping proxy - on the Services Tab.

Rather than WinGate's inbuilt SMTP server, on the System tab.

The difference is that the SMTP Proxy does not spool to disk and try to resend etc, if the checkbox is not set, it will not work.

Sounds like you need to use WinGate's SMTP server rather than the proxy, and that is only available in WinGate 5.x

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Postby Don » Oct 04 03 6:41 am

That makes sense Adrian .. I have Wingate 5.0.7 and there IS NO SMTP SERVER listed under the SYSTEMS tab .... or anything like a mail service ... just the same names I had listed on version 4.3

And the SERVICES tab only lists the SMTP Proxy as a service .... no other mail releated tab
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Postby adrien » Oct 04 03 7:07 am

aha!

You are using a 4.x key!

That is the only way those things will not show up.

It all becomes clear to me now! When did you buy your 4.x license? If it is post 18 October or something like that last year then you qualify for a free upgrade to 5.0

Adrien
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Postby Don » Oct 04 03 10:03 am

OK .. yeah .... I never saw THAT documented anywhere.

I HAD 4.3 ... then the system crashed and we reloaded from scratch and of course couldn't download 4.3 Wingate ... so I got 5.0.7 and just used the 4.3 key.

I've had the 4.3 since day on .... a couple years at least .. so I guess I need to go see what an upgrade will cost.


Who's the USA dealer these days?
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