Allocate one user license permanately to one PC

[robinmx]

I recently installed Wingate for a client who has 17 employees, the client purchased the 6 user standard edition license. The director needs to use the internet (websites/mail) frequently. The employees workstations have AV and anti-spyware updating occasionally in the background via NAT. All website requests are prompted with the java login. The boss has a login to gain access to internet sites and only wants one other PC to have access to websites, so I created a login which could only be used on that PC in question.

Now the problem is that the director can't get on the internet sometimes as all the licenses are being used via updates, etc. I want to be able to configure Wingate to give the director's workstation priority above all other workstations on allocating his PC a license even if it has to be permanently allocated to him. Can this be done?

Thanks,

Robert.

[Nev]

Wingate to give the director's workstation priority above all other workstations on allocating his PC a license even if it has to be permanently allocated to him. Can this be done?

Thanks,

Robert.

Hi,

The way to fix this would be a licence upgrade, a 12 user could fix it!

[robinmx]

Buying more licenses isn't the answer to my question.

I would say the software isn't too well written if my request couldn't be done without buying more user licenses or is there deliberate policy not to allow users to do what I'm asking, if so that would be so M$ like.

Please don't tell me that Qbik is that type of company and a simple solution does exist like a registry edit or something similar.

Thanks.

[logan]

You could ask the director to use a permanent authentication method with WinGate such as the Qbik Auth tool. This authentication session would consume a license in WinGate and would maintain that license on the computer.

[robinmx]

I managed to find the tool after a quick search on Google:

http://www.wingate.com/downloads/QbikAuth.exe

It sounds promising, I'll give it a try this week.

Thanks again.

Robert.

[adrien]

Hi

I don't think that will work unfortunately, since those auth sessions don't actually consume a licence count. You'd need to keep something open that does, such as a telnet connection or something... something that won't time out either.

We've never had a request before for reserving a licence for a particular machine, It's not a bad idea, but WinGate doesn't currently support it.

regards

Adrien

[adrien]

PS, a quick fix could be the purchasing of more licences. You don't necessarily need to upgrade to the next size licence, you can purchase a small licence and add it as well, you'll get the combination of the licence sizes then.

[robinmx]

Well I'm back again as what was written above is true and the boss at the office where I installed WinGate isn't too happy and has called me roughly three weeks after finishing the install. He is locked out from using the internet for more than an hour sometimes.

Does anyone have a suggested application that will stay connected 24/7 and won't time out dropping the connection? I would prefer a light weight application, but for the moment I'll give Skype a trial run.

[adrien]

Hi Robin

the solution to the problem (an additional 3 user licence) is worth only $75, so I hope the boss is aware of this, and isn't incurring more cost than that to find an alternative solution. Or is there a much bigger overuse factor?

If you think of it like phone lines, if a company fundamentally doesn't have enough phone lines for the number of people in the company making calls, the solution is to either

a) tell people to stay off the phones; or
b) get more phone lines.

In this case, the fundamental problem is that the company doesn't have a big enough licence for the use they require. The solutions are basically the same as for the phone situation - either the boss tells people to get off the net, or a bigger licence is needed.

I don't know of any other software that allows you to reserve access. For instance MS doesn't allow this with their client licencing for their server products.

Most proxy products don't even licence concurrent users, but seats, in which case you'd need a licence for anyone who would ever use the proxy. You get significant savings by concurrent licencing.

Another thing you could look at is what are the others doing that tie up the licences, you may be able to reduce timeouts for instance, or block some services. Things like SOCKS apps typically hold connections open longer.

[Nev]

Now the problem is that the director can't get on the internet sometimes as all the licenses are being used via updates, etc.

Robert.

Another thing you could look at is what are the others doing that tie up the licences, you may be able to reduce timeouts for instance, or block some services. Things like SOCKS apps typically hold connections open longer.

Yes that is an answer, couldn't the 'updates' occur after hours or when the boss isn't in the office?