Can you help me understand WinGate

[MrHaynes]

I work for a company who uses Wingate as a web traffic monitor only, nothing else.

Am I right in thinking the only way to get WinGate to act as a Proxy Server is to input the address in the Proxy Server settings of the browser, or is there a way to just enter the address in the DNS server area and get this to work. I'm sure I saw somewhere that there is a way to do this but can't find it again. Thought it may have something to do with WinGate operating as the DHCP, which it is not. I have tried many differenty settings but the connecting PC gets no internet not even a WinGate screen, and the "System Messages" show "Authentication Failed". If I enter the details in the browser proxy settings, all works fine.

The company is not on a Domain yet (don't ask), but does have about 100 users, and it is a pain enetering these settings on the browser settings.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

[erwin]

Hi Mr Haynes

WinGate has the ability to provide PAC (proxy auto config) file to users who have their browsers set to automatically detect proxy settings.

When client browsers are set to autodetect proxy settings, the location of the PAC file can be issued to each client via DHCP using the WPAD option (252). This option can be configured with a string value of the URL where the wpad.dat (PAC file) is stored. Obviously in this situation the location will be the WinGate proxy server on the network. The file is called wpad.dat

e.g. "http://IP address of WinGate/wpad.dat"

Since you have a DHCP server already you could add this WPAD (252) option to issue the location.

Alternatively, on most browsers you can set the location of where to find the automatic proxy configuration (e.g. firefox has the Automatic proxy configuration URL setting). Again this will be the wpad.dat file on the WinGate server (like the DHCP WPAD 252 option string.)
i.e. "http://IP address of WinGate/wpad.dat"

Erwin

[MrHaynes]

Thanks Erwin

I have entered these details into the DHCP, but (and yes I should have mentioned this before) Wingate is on a different server to the DHCP server and is not the current gateway.

This is an environment where we have 5 subnets each with own dhcp (although some are set static) own internet access for managers and use Wingate for other users.

How would I set the DHCP for a subnet which is not the same as the Wingate server, i.e the gateway and dns.
And how can I set the statics so I don't have to keep setting the browser proxy setting especially when a new user is added (all PC's use IE for consistency).

Thanks

[adrien]

Hi

in your (other) DHCP server you can configure it to assign any default gateway or DNS server you like.

Actually for DNS, probably I wouldn't change it (I presume it's currently configured to allocate to an internal DNS server), and instead just add forwarders to that server to point to WinGate.

As for the statics, if you don't want to manually set proxy information, and don't use AD (so no Group Policy), that only leaves WPAD setup.

That requires assigning an option 252 in DHCP which has a URL in it. The URL is normally something like

http://wingate/wpad.dat

where the name wingate resolves to the WinGate server.

Regards

Adrien