Internet problems Wingate 5

[Behrco]

We had to re-install wingate 5 after a crash. It's running on an XP machine. We have a domain served by a Windows 2003 server. We have these problems with internet access:
1) Many webpages do not refresh, even when Refresh button is pushed on IE. Some issue with caching maybe?
2) Some internet applications cannot be run through a proxy server. If I disable the WWW proxy server, that application runs, but nobody else has access to the internet. We didn't have this problem before re-install.

I realize you probably need more info than this. Our computer expert retired, and I am a neophyte. Please tell me what you need to know in order to help. Thanks!
Also, I can't get wingate to accept my license number.

[Pascal]

With regards to the license key. First, you need to ensure that the Licensee and Key are typed exactly as you have them on record. Ensure that you are not mistaking a 0 for an O, and so forth.

The refreshing problem could be related to caching. If that is the case, pressing Ctrl-F5 or clicking the Refresh button while holding Ctrl will force a refresh. If that resolves it can be resolved by adding that site to the list of sites that will not be cached. (More complex topic, so let's first see if that is the case)

As for the application problem it is possible that your previous setup had the proxy server running on a different port. Is there any chance you can get in touch with the retired computer expert to find out how it was configured before?

It is also possible that 6.0.4 can resolve this, as it supports HTTP 1.1 which WinGate 5 did not and has a number of improvements in the proxy area. (And others)

[Behrco]

Regarding the license, I have a "License Number" and a "Wingate Key", both numeric values. Do I need to know a user name as well, maybe our company name?

Could my problems be related to the fact that I am running a "trial" version, since I don't have the license key installed? My notes from the retired guy said that he downloaded several updates to "Wingate Plus". I re-installed from the original file we downloaded. I'm not sure how old it was. Is functionality limited until the key is accepted?

Regarding the refresh problem, using a forced refresh did not work. Still have old webpages. I tried disabling the cache on the Gatekeeper, but that didn't help.

Regarding proxy applications, can I change the port on the WWW proxy from 80 to 8080? I have read that I shouln't change that port. Is there a way to change the port on the ENS service? That service is not supposed to require any configuration? I also tried redirecting non-proxy requests to the IP address of the computer on which Wingate is installed, but that didn't help, and I'm not sure I did that correctly.

Regarding 6.0, doesn't that require a lot more configuration decisions than 5.0? If I can't configure 5.0, I'm not sure I would have any better luck with 6.0.

A few more pieces of info for you: We connect to a DSL line through a modem. We have dynamic IP address from the ISP. All of my pc's have static IP addresses so they can receive mail from an external mail server.

The pc on which wingate is installed was not originally a member of our domain. I added it to the domain. There are no other programs on the wingate server.

Thanks for your help!!

[Pascal]

Regarding the license, I have a "License Number" and a "Wingate Key", both numeric values. Do I need to know a user name as well, maybe our company name?

Could my problems be related to the fact that I am running a "trial" version, since I don't have the license key installed? <snip> Is functionality limited until the key is accepted?

You should have a "Licensee" and "Key", somewhere. Do you still have the original invoice / key email? What error does it give you when you try to use the key? One alternative could be to submit a support ticket (Not through the forum, but through our support site) to retrieve your key information. You'll need to give as much details as possible when you do that, to make it easier for the guys to find your license.

Trial keys are the maximum types of licenses we have, so you won't be limited by that at all.

Regarding the refresh problem, using a forced refresh did not work. Still have old webpages. I tried disabling the cache on the Gatekeeper, but that didn't help.

Have you tried purging the local IE cache?

Let's take the other problems one at a time. Firstly, how do you connect your client computers through WinGate?

1. NAT - by altering their TCP/IP properties so they route through WinGate
2. WRP - by installing the WinGate Internet Client on each PC
3. Proxy - by configuring a proxy for each application that must reach the internet on each client
4. Combination - any combination of the above methods

[Behrco]

Purging local IE cache did not help.

Summary of our setup:
1) WGIC is not installed on any client, so I guess we are using NAT.
TCP properties on each pc are set to look at the wingate server as the gateway and the wingate server is also listed as a DNS server along with the local domain controller.

2) For all the systems and proxy servers, I have set "interfaces" as "Rotate connections out - etc" and "sessions" for transparent redirection of ENS and WGIC.

3) For e-mail I have set sending as a gateway to our external e-mail server, and I use POP system and proxy server for receiving. This worked well until this morning. I have been experimenting with port settings on the ENS tab, and now my incoming e-mail is VERY slow. I'm not sure how to fix that, as I thought I had put everything back the way it was. One thing I did before the problem appeared was to log onto the local domain on the wingate machine using a domain user name. This computer had already been a member of the domain, but I had always logged on locally to that machine and not to the domain. Maybe that affected e-mail reception. I logged back on locally, but I still have the slow reception problem. Any ideas?

4) I think my problems with the internet webpages may be related to the port settings in ENS services. (We also cannot access any HTTP sites at all). Last night I changed some port settings and got some webpages to update, but performance was very sluggish. I changed the settings back, and the webpage reverted to the old version.

Current settings are:
LAN Connections to Wingate PC - Allow ports 80-8080 on WWW
Connections from the internet - Allow port 80 on WWW
LAN connections to internet - Redirect 80
The detail page on that last connection shows "Redirect Packet to IP address 0.0.0.0 and "Override Port 80"
If I change that "redirect" button to "Allow Packet", then the non-proxy application works, but I can't access the internet.
Should there be some IP address in the Redirect box?
Thanks!!

[Pascal]

You should not need to do any of what you have described with the port security actions. Those are for holes in your firewall. Generally, you do not need to open holes in the LAN->Internet side.

The same with giving the rest of the world access to port 80. The proxy services are controlled by their bindings - that is what determines where they will accept connections. In it's default state winGate should be 100% functional and correctly setup.

I'm half tempted to get you to reinstall and to get a clean install back so know what things look like. For now though, go into Gatekeeper, Options, Advanced and click the save registry settings button there.

Then, email me that exported file. Bear in mind it's Saturday, so i might not respond as quickly as usual.

[Behrco]

I have installed a newer version of Wingate, and all my problems seem to have disappeared!!! Thank you for your time and effort!!

[Pascal]

Excellent - you might consider going to 6.0.4 rather than 5.2, there are significant improvements.