What in the world happened to Wingate 2008??

[sduffey]

Has this become vaporware? After Vista came out I saw here that Wingate 2008 was supposed to be following a few months later since it does not support Vista for VPN use. Here we are well over a year later and nothing, not a word, not a peep. That is disappointing.

[labull]

Can't agree with

nothing, not a word, not a peep

If you've been keeping up with the forum posts at all you would see that the project is still being worked on and they're hoping for a release real soon now.

I'm sure everyone, including the Qbik folks, would rather '08 was complete, I know I sure do, but there have been plenty of posts on the subject.

[Nev]

Has this become vaporware?

Have to agree with Larry, the redevelopment of something as complex as Wingate is a enormous task, then to seek compatibility with the array of hardware, Internet and users is daunting.

I remember not so long ago MS CEO Bill Gates arbitrarily moved 5,000 code staff onto a fault in an operating system, makes you think!

[adrien]

Hi

yep, WinGate 2008 is still happening... albeit a LOT slower than we would have liked. We've got it stable on Vista since some time now - battling XP stability under heavy load.

It's quite a different beast. If you'd like to look at a preview, please let me know. We've been releasing a couple out to a couple of people for feedback.

[alyork]

Hope the Windows 2000 Server support doesn't get broken.

[logan]

I don't see Windows 2000 support ending any time soon as it's still a viable and capable server platform. However, Windows 95, 98, ME and Windows NT support has been dropped in WinGate 2008.

[alyork]

Oh good. Just converted our last NT client serve to 2003. Almost all other clients are running 2000 Server in some form.

Still have one very small network with Win98 server running Winproxy. May never convert that one since Win98 and the base Winproxy should continue to run forever.

[olaf.krause]

I think it is a good idea to NOT release anything not stable - but is there an update on dev/bugfixing progress?

[olaf.krause]

bring to top

[mark_f1man]

Is there any information available yet on the likely feature set for Wingate 7 / 2008?? And in particular regarding web site filtering & logging etc.

I imagine all the proxy / gateway stuff will be reasonably full featured and solid but are there any plans to beef up the filtering/reporting side? Or will Qbik be staying with PureSight? I downloaded a trial of WebMarshal and have it installed on the same box as Wingate. Looks quite good but it would be messier running two proxies.

[frputz]

:-)))))

Now it is named Wingate 7.x :-)))))) Maybe Wingate 2009 is to optimistic :-)))

Not sure if they realease really a new version maybe qbik will disapear before...

Never got a pre release.. registered several times with different user for a beta version of the Wingate ähh 2007

Maybe Qbik is a one or two men show :-) so i totaly understand that is hard for this people to develop a new version

I am sure the new version can generate a lot of bussines if they have still customer using wingate :-)) Sure that many people using the software without having a support contract..

The story of this major new version.. the letter from the CEO and so on give me not a good feeling about the experience of them... someone developed the Wingate in the past... and this one or this team is gone .. the new guys did not have the expierence to do so...

But one thing is sure... if there is a new version within the next 6 month i will try it and if i have to many problems with it.. wingate is dead for me... we have already moved some users to a different solution which is working very stable fast and without problems ..

There must be a reason why deerfield end up with wingate in the past :-))))))

And please do not cry when you made a answer.. like it is so difficult to develop a new version.. and the most important topic is that the new version will stable.... oh my good because if you anounce several time a new version and you did not done it.. it is like a bad joke...

Just do it and if you not can don't try to get mercy .. then say you are not able to do.. and did not announce such things before you have it...

By the way it is not the first time that Qbik announced and never released a "new" product... in the past there was a WingateX.. a Wingate Version for Linux.. on the website there was a download link to a file but i never succeded in downloading this file and never got this beta from qbik this time.... it simple disapeard ...

http://web.archive.org/web/200406071545 ... ngatex.php

[adrien]

Hi

I appreciate you all must be very frustrated at the delays in WinGate.

However, we have had a number of customers and all our distribution partners testing a preview version since about 2 months ago. It's not feature complete yet which is why it hasn't been put to public beta. Other than our distribution partners, customers become involved at this stage largely out of their own interest and a desire to potentially influence direction of the product.

If you are interested in looking at it (I hope you are), let me know I will email you a download link so you can see it's definitely not vapourware.

In the end, I'm not really interested in making excuses for delays either. I can provide answers, but in the end the main thing that people will base decisions on are a) the product and b) the company, and in general how much they can rely on both of these. Sure we don't have a good track record at estimating releases. We take some very small solace from the fact that we aren't alone on that count. We don't have any excuses for this that we will burden customers with so I won't, but we are working to improve these areas.

So down to business. We are very keen to get feedback on how people see the new version. It is radically different from previous versions. Radically. You'll understand when/if you decide to have a look at it.

some other answers:

frputz -

* We aren't a one or two man show.
* staff retention is very high, on average >5 years for development and slightly less for other staff. The chief architect (myself) wrote WinGate originally and founded Qbik. So we have skills continuity in all areas.
* We terminated the contract with Deerfield.
* WinGateX didn't generate any significant interest. Unfortunately extremely little interest in fact, and so was mothballed. I admit this should have been more clearly communicated.
* I don't remember bemoaning the difficulties of software development, even though it can be difficult, that's our problem. I did explain why we were moving to a new architecture though, and some of those reasons were to ease development difficulties. That is a customer benefit though.

olaf - we have some new recent leads on certain 6.x issues, which we aim to test next week.

mark_f1man - Feature set: re site filtering we still will have a PureSight product, but as in WinGate 6 you could use policy to filter sites as well, with the new version the policy control is vastly more powerful and scalable for that purpose. Marshall software is down the road from us, so we may have some opportunities for co-operation.

Re reporting, we will initially still be a bit light. However, the new framework allows development of after-market and 3rd party reporting and accounting, which we will be releasing as a later product. You can also currently log to a database, and use various report writing tools to extract reports.

[SkyMan]

frputz -

What is the "different solution" you have moved some people to?

[frputz]

ccproxy...

as tempory solution...

but think we will go to squid.. it is free...

[mark_f1man]

Thanks Adrien.

Re reporting. Actually the current version isn't too bad. I linked the dbf file into Access and had a few reports up and running in a reasonably short amount of time. The only slight issue is that it reports data sent to/from the client rather than to/from the internet. Is that correct? - can't really see the result of the caching? Is 7.x different to that?

Re site filtering, I can't remember being that impressed with PureSight when I looked at it quite some time ago. With the filtering it would be good to have some prebuilt filters for blocking different types of inappropriate content eg. Adult & Nudity, Gambling etc. Or a way to swap/share filtering templates with other Wingate users. Apart from URL filtering, programs like WebMarhal also have a page classification system using a weighted system of keywords. Are either or both of these possible in Wingate 7.x?

I would be interested in having a look at 7.x if you have a beta available.

[Sinisha]

Adrien,

I'd like to see the new version, so if You can send me link to download it, please.

Thanks in advance

[frputz]

Hello,

by the way... where is the problem to give a public beta/a first view.. a early release or what you like to call to all... not only on request..

It is no problem when it runs not stable or if some feature are not available.. if you say this... .. everyone know that it is only a pre release but everyone can see that it is going forward.

Regards

Frank

[Nev]

Hello,

by the way... where is the problem to give a public beta/a first view.. a early release or what you like to call to all... not only on request..

Regards Frank

Hi Frank,

What could be the problem with a beta release is that it is not suitable for a production environment and may only be really deployed on a test machine.

Users' with clients dependant on their Wingate need a reliable gateway uninterrupted by fixed features in say a beta release which only has a limited release time.

However, just as a test machine where users' have the capacity it can be useful in the beta process for both clients and the developers.

From what I have seen Qbik will probably release a public beta when 'the work is done' to a point that suits their high standards of product reliability.

[frputz]

Oh, really?

I think i never saw a beta of a wingate version... since many years.. as i already wrote.. as the beta test for wingate was started .. or as the launched the website for the beta registration for the first new wingate aähh 2007 i registered some times with different mail adresses and never i got a beta..

Anyway.. the high product quality is a standard quality.. nothing more .. i can renember the time as qbik give us a kick in the ass... someone found a security hole in the internal webserver of the wingate.. used to spread the java client applet in our enviroment.. the closed the security hole in removing the wingate-internal.. site.. that was very funny at this time the old version has some bugs and we had no choice we had to install the updated version which caused us some trouble due to this "fix".. many many topics i could remember in the past.... so don't told me about the high product quality.. it is just software

Qbik has a big problem.. there are a free products on linux doing the same and the people got more and more practis with linux and some router/firewall give you alternatives for bringing your users to the internet.. so i am sure more and more of the last big wingate users are going to this solution due to the never ending story...

But anyway this was my last post it makes no sence to talk about the same over years and i wasting only time on this.. i think i will tell my boss to end up with wingate and to go a other way... only 300 Users .. peanouts for qbik...

Good Bye

[rboynton]

there are a free products on linux doing the same and the people got more and more practis with linux and some router/firewall give you alternatives for bringing your users to the internet..

True. There have always been alternatives out there! I like the open source concept, but an unwilling to trust my enterprise to that. I am not a strong Linux guy, but some are very comfortable using it. Unix security is only as good as the sysadmin. It is very explicit, and depends on the admin to make most of the decisions. A weak sysadmin can compromise an enterprise in a hurry. Wingate takes much of the risk out of the equation.

The point is that development of Wingate is ongoing in earnest. The developers are as eager to get the product out as much as we are eager to use it. If a bug is found, then it will no doubt be patched. The current product works, and the new product will do even more.

[adrien]

Frank

Nev has actually been trialling WinGate 2008/7.

Sorry I haven't posted you a link yet - we've been battling a couple of issues. I still will send you a download link in the next couple of days. there are a couple of reasons we don't feel it's quite ready to be made a public beta.

[callyp]

thousands of users are desperately waiting for new release........no more public post is available after feb 2008.
even 6.2.3 has not been made public which solved microfost download issue.

any expected release date.....

[ccbce]

I had a question about upgrading once the next version of wingate is released. I thought I had seen a post somewhere before saying people who's version protection had expired would still be able to upgrade their current licenses to the new version without paying. Was that correct or did I misread/forget what exactly was said?

Currently I am using a 50 user license and i am interested in the new version and yet if there is too much cost involved I have been considering moving to a linux solution.

thanks,
Jared

[munrobasher]

Can't agree with

nothing, not a word, not a peep

If you've been keeping up with the forum posts at all you would see that the project is still being worked on and they're hoping for a release real soon now.

I'm sure everyone, including the Qbik folks, would rather '08 was complete, I know I sure do, but there have been plenty of posts on the subject.

Starting to get itchy feet...

Cheers, Rob.

[olaf.krause]

I had a question about upgrading once the next version of wingate is released. I thought I had seen a post somewhere before saying people who's version protection had expired would still be able to upgrade their current licenses to the new version without paying. Was that correct or did I misread/forget what exactly was said?

Currently I am using a 50 user license and i am interested in the new version and yet if there is too much cost involved I have been considering moving to a linux solution.

thanks,
Jared

In the past you did not need to buy a new licence unless you just use the same features in new versions.
@Adrien please confirm that it will be the same for the new release or if not what the upgrade strategie will be

Olaf

[adrien]

Hi

WinGate 6 keys still work in WinGate 7. There will be some new features that won't function without a v7 license though.

We are also currently finalising a final release of the WinGate 6 family: WinGate 6.5, with main enhancements being support for Vista, and XP 64 as well as a number of other bug fixes.

This is due to delays in getting WinGate 7 ready.

Adrien

[frputz]

Hi

WinGate 6 keys still work in WinGate 7. There will be some new features that won't function without a v7 license though.

We are also currently finalising a final release of the WinGate 6 family: WinGate 6.5, with main enhancements being support for Vista, and XP 64 as well as a number of other bug fixes.

This is due to delays in getting WinGate 7 ready.

Adrien

Oh, that sounds like a new release date...

Wingate 6.5 ... 2009

Wingate 7 ... 2010 - 2011...

Mh.. if you now anounce a improved version of 6.. means this.. wingate 2007.. äh sorry 2008 is dead

Sounds very strange.. you still fighting with the new version where you say ..i sent you a link to a beta in a couple of days.. (never get this link) and you have still resources to upgrade the old version with Vista.. and 64 Bit support !..Wow...

Maybe a better idea to do that.. fixing the problems in the current version(very only a few are) and if you made a cosmetic change to the current interface implementing some new or requested functions and supporting new OS you will made more happy people then with the never ending story...
Giving the renovated 6.x the Version number 7 and everything is ok...

Sorry but i can't pipe down if i see what is going on here....

And one suggestion.. If you have really a major new version.. why not sell it.. i mean if the old licence code is still valid you get not paid for work many users will not buy a new licence to use the new function for them it is enough that the basic system is improved..
This is good for the old 6.x... code stream.. but if you have really a total new and improved version.. i think many people find worth to buy it to get a improvement in the basic function.. .. if not they can still use the old version... ..

[labull]

frputz -

Sorry but i can't pipe down if i see what is going on here

What do you see here that is different from what others see? I see the folks at Qbik working very hard to maintain stability with the current version while also working very hard to get the next version ready. Yes, it's true that things are taking longer than expected - but, so what? Sometimes things just work out that way.

All you seem to want to do is make snide comments, that I'm sure you think are quite clever, about release dates and to tell Qbik how to run their business.

If you want to be taken seriously you should eliminate the insults. The insults just make people marginalize whatever good comments you may have. Repeating those same insults just makes you seem immature.

You don't like WinGate or Qbik or Adrien or the way they do business or whatever, you have certainly made that very clear. You tell us "goodbye" and that you won't post anymore on the subject and you're going to a different product - Yet you keep coming back.

Adrien will be the first to tell you that WinGate is not the best product for every situation. If that's the case for you - please move on.

If WinGate is your choice, please feel free to make constructive comments and leave the insults, threats of going to Linux and snide comments out.

Larry

[sduffey]

Like others I am frustrated by Wingate's delay. However one thing I NEED fixed NOW is the http 1.1 incompatibility that prevents my clients from pulling down from Windows Update properly!!!

[adrien]

frputz

WinGate 6.5 is WinGate 6.2 + WinGate 7 driver which works on Vista 32 and XP/2003 64, plus a number of bug fixes.

We plan to release this today - we had a hold-up with some network cards using Coalesce Buffers on Vista and XP64.

A large proportion of people are now using Vista (about 13% by our reckoning). So we need to release vista support, and can't wait until WinGate 7 is completely ready.

As for whether or not we allow version 6 keys to run in WinGate 7, in the past we have always allowed WinGate to use previous version keys. It allows us to avoid having to keep maintaining previous versions of the software, since people can always upgrade to the latest version which has bug fixes. If the people want the new features they have to upgrade. We hope that the new features provide enough incentive for people to upgrade.

Regards

Adrien