Can not connect with Windows 2000 Pro or XP Pro

[wizard-ICT]

I have installed WinGate on a Windows 2000 Server (Gateway). I have installed the Client software on 3 machines (2000 server, 2000 Pro and XP Pro).
The 2000 server machine works perfectly. However the other 2 do not work at all! The 2000 pro machine worked at first until first time it was turned off and now nothing! (when I try to connect to the internet it doesnt even bring up the WinGate connecting box any more). The XP machine has never managed to connect.
Both machines see the Gateway server and the network is fine. I have checked the WinGate logs and there is no sign of a connection attempt.
However, if I go to the Gateway server and connect WinGate to the dialup manually the clients work!
I have tried re-installing the Clients (I know the Gateway is ok because it is working with the other server machine). I have also tried changing the redirection port incase of conflict and refreshing the clients, they see the port change but still wont connect!
Any ideas?

[erwin]

Hi there

Just a couple of questions.

Are your client machines being given IP addresses by WinGate, or from another DCHP server, or are they statically assigned.?

In any case you will have to make sure that the client DNS and Gateway entries (in their network properties) are pointed at the WinGate servers LAN card IP address.

This way client machine can access the WinGate server for Internet access via NAT(Network address translation) or WinGate Internet client.(WGIC)

If using the WGIC does the WinGate server appear under the WinGate server tab in the WGIC applet?.

Lastly connecting to the Interent from the WinGate server will not be affected by WinGate running on that machine, so unfortunately this will not verify clients are working.

Check the other things mentioned and let us know.

Regards
Erwin

[wizard-ICT]

Hi, thanks for the quick response.
The clients all have static IP addresses in an existing network (workgroup not domain) that works fine.
All machines have the default gateway and DNS servers set (I have checked that the settings are exactly the same for the machine that works as the 2 that dont!).
I am using WGIC and yes the server is detected in the WGIC applet.
I think you have miss undestood the last point slighty (sorry its probably my bad expaination!).
If I go to the dial up settings of WinGate Gateway and conect the dial-up connection manually then go back to the client and open I.E. the WinGate "connecting" box appears and I can connect to the internet fine (I then also have to disconnect manually when I finish).
However, if I try to connect without first manually connecting the internet the "connecting" box does not open and the WinGate gateway log (or history) does not show any connection attempt (eg the client is not connecting to the gateway).

[wizard-ICT]

Just a further note on this problem!
I am using XP SP1 (not SP2 which looking at the forum seems to cause alot of prolems!). I also have the Wingate firewall turned off as I use Kerio WinRoute Firewall (which has NAT and DNS capabilities but these are disabled), the firewall is only active for the external internet connection and does not block any internal LAN traffic.
Any help would be apreciated as I really need to get this up and running asap!
Regards

[erwin]

Hi there

Just quickly

Have you configured the dial up profile to be used by WinGate (i.e. configured it to be used in the dialer config of GateKeeper. This needs to be done befroe WinGate dials on behalf of clients.

I have tested this scenario with WGIC/NAT using dialup in your scenario and unfortunately I cant seem to repro your issue.
Check to see that the dial up profile has been set as mentioned above.

Also can your clients connect (instigate the dialer) using NAT?, you can switch the WGIC of to test this via the WGIC toggle on the start menu.

Two other things to check:
Try switching of the Kerio Firewall,( as WinGate operates its own firewall, so you will still be protected) to see if this is causing issues

Check that the clients browsers arent set to use a proxy or dial a default connection.

Regards
Erwin

[wizard-ICT]

Hi.
Thanks for your help.
All of the dial up settings are configured correctly (as stated in my first comment one machine works!).
I have found that by stopping Winroute firewall, starting Wingate then restarting WinRoute the XP machine works! (sorry but I cannot remove WinRoute entirely even though WinGate does include a firewall as complete security on our network is essential, having tested your firewall it appears to have a hole or two! If you would like the test results showing this so you can fix them let me know an email address as I dont think printing it here would be a good idea for you or the people who are using it!).
However the 2000 Pro machine still doesn't work. This machine also runs NetOp remote Guest (similar to Remote Anywhere etc if you are not familiar with it). If I stop this then WinGate seems to work intermittently (even if I restart NetOp again I get the same results).
To sum up it seems to be related to which order I start up this programs (so presumably a conflict). If you have any suggestions on how to overcome this without having to keep shutting down and restarting everything in a certain order please let me know!
Regards
Mark

[wizard-ICT]

All WGIC clients have now stopped working even the one that worked ok at first and with WinRoute and NetOp removed!
The NAT server still works but that is a waste of money as it is no better than internet connection sharing provided free with Windows!
This appears to be a completely flakey program and unless it can produce better results than I have seen so far it is completely worthless!

[adrien]

When using the WinGate client, if you wish to use dial on demand, you need to have the DNS server in WinGate (if that is the one you are using) configured to trigger the dialer.

this is because prior to making any request to the Winsock Redirector Service for connections to the Internet, the clients do a DNS lookup.

If this DNS lookup fails then the client won't make any request.

If the DNS server in WinGate is not configured to initiate dialing, then the DNS lookups will fail.

Adrien

[wizard-ICT]

Hi.
I have tried using it both with the DNS server in WinGate and also with a seperate DNS server on the network (both results are the same so I am now sticking with using the WinGate DNS).
I have configured the Host file with addresses for the local network and set the IP addresses for the 2 DNS servers we connect to on the internet.
I have also ticked the box saying "allow requests to initiate dialing" presumably this is correct?
I have just done a port scan of the gateway machine and it does not appear to be listening for requests on port 53, should this be so? (I was expecting it to be listening for dns requests on this port????)

[wizard-ICT]

Can anyone confirm these settings are correct and if I should get a port listening reply on port 53 from the WinGate gateway machine with DNS running please??

[adrien]

Most port scanners scan TCP, but the DNS server uses UDP.

If you need to tell if this is running from the LAN side, you have several options.

1. From a command prompt run "netstat -an", which will list all open sockets. At the bottom UDP ones are shown, and there should be a listing for your internal IP:53 for the DNS server in WinGate.

2. If you have a client machine on the network running NT/2k/XP, there is a command line application called nslookup.exe If you run this, it is a DNS client, you can type in addresses, and it will make a DNS request and show you the response. It normally points to the same DNS server that your OS is using, if you need to get it to use a different server, the command "server 192.168.0.1" will set it to use 192.168.0.1 as its DNS server for requests. Type names into this application and see if you get responses.

In answer to your other questions, yes that setting "allow requests to initiate dialer" is the correct one.

Also to enable dialing, make sure that in the dialer configuration in WinGate, that the dialup profile you are using is enabled to be used by WinGate, and that the username and password are correct.

Adrien

[wizard-ICT]

Hi
Ok netstat shows that DNS is listening on port 53.
So I will try one more time to get an answer to solve my problem before give up and label this piece of software completely useless!
We have established al settings are correct. The NAT side of the software works fine. However the WGIC software only works the first couple of times after install then gives up, any suggestions as to what is causing this or is this just a poor piece of software that will never work properly????