epinions and web cams in all rooms! Hackers welcome too!
Written: Apr 09 '00 (Updated May 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: low-cost, with some luck easy to install
Cons: poor documentation, security issues, for Windows only, software solution = requires server to be up 24x7, did not fully support my camera or pcAnywhere
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| ptiemann's Full Review: WinGate Home 3 |
So you have a few computers and want internet access on all of them, to read epinions in the living-room and in the garden and in the kitchen? You have choices.
You can have separate phone lines/ DSL/ cable modem connections to each of your computers. Ok. This is a joke, but to be complete, I have to mention it. This solution is pricey, and does not give you good connectivity between the computers in your house/ office.
The much smarter way is to have one computer connected to the internet (outside world, WAN = wide area network) and connect your machines to this one to share the internet connection.
Over the last 12 months, I have tried these products:
* WinGate (software, proxy server)
(this epinion)
* WinRoute (software router)
http://preview.epinions.com/cmd-review-7B5C-127278DF-38F7DADF-prod3
* LinkSys router
http://preview.epinions.com/cmd-review-6D07-1AB59CA-391775E3-prod1
* HawkingTech SOHO router
http://preview.epinions.com/cmd-review-76A3-1AC3E8E-3917782D-prod1
For each of those 4 products, I will inspect
1) Ease of installation
2) Security
3) Administration
4) Functionality/ compatibility
5) Performance
6) Pricing
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** W i n G a t e
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WinGate is a complete firewall/proxy server, available as shareware. You can license a 'home', a 'standard' and a 'pro' version. After a test period, you have to register it.
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1) Ease of installation
My environment:
1 Windows NT 4.0 computer with 2 networking interface cards (NICs). One NIC is connected to the ADSL adapter (or a cable modem), the other one is connected to the local area network. At this time, that meant that it was directly connected to a Windows 98 notebook. This Windows NT machine acts as the 'server'.
1 Windows 98 notebook computer, 1 NIC - connected to the 'server'.
On a paper, I wrote down:
* my external IP address (with DSL, it's a static number, the ISP tells you which)
* DNS servers (the ISP tells you)
* default gateway (again, the ISP tells you)
* IP numbers for each of the computers on the local network. I choose these within the 192.168.x.x range:
192.168.10.1 for the server
192.168.10.2 for the notebook computer
I installed TCP/IP on my computers with the determined IP numbers and installed then WinGate 'server' on the desktop and rebooted. When the server was running, I took the notebook and installed WinGate with option 'client' selected. This part was fully automatically - very easy, really.
I brought up a web page on the notebook right away without problems. Email, telnet, ftp.. at first glance, it all worked, and I was satisfied. (see part '4 - functionality' for more.)
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2) Security
I read back then an article about a security problem with WinGate. That article explained that WinGate has some serious security issues if you don't change the default settings.
I did not find the document that I read a year ago, but this link is good also:
http://blacksun.box.sk/proxy.html
The link is target at the hacker who wants to abuse open WinGates, but also tells the WinGate admin what to do. It also mentions a competing product - 'SyGate', which is more secure. I did not try that one out.
In case you wonder why you should be concerned about security.. if you don't close the security holes, an external person can connect to your WinGate server and do internet connections through your WinGate. This does not actually hurt you, right. A common use would be to run a script that generates fake clicks on (adult) banners. I've seen a script that would fake large amount of banner hits when combined with a list of WinGate servers.
Regarding SECURITY ISSUES WITH WINGATE, I suggest to also read this epinion:
http://preview.epinions.com/cmd-review-782E-839D19A-38F117E5-prod6
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3) Administration
Gatekeeper gives you the power.. fully timestamped log files, you can create users and groups of users. You can restrict the access to certain services, ip numbers/ urls by time and user or user group.
There is no remote administration possible. You have to sit at the 'server' machine.
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4) Functionality/ Compatibility
All the regular stuff worked right away (http, pop3 & smtp email, ftp).
I even got ICQ and IRC to work.
My next requirements were pcAnywhere and VDOphone or cuSeeme.
WinGate claims that they're compatible with pcAnywhere. The truth is.. yes. I was instantly able to connect from my client computers to a remote computer (in the office) and control it. Whatever I tried, I was never able to pcAnywhere from the office into my WinGate client.
VDOphone. Again, WinGate claims to be compatible. It might be my mistake, all I can say here is that I just did get it done. WinGate says that the support the H.323 protocol (video over the internet, H.324 is point-to-point over a regular phone line) and luckily software like MS Netmeeting or VDOphone base on H.323. I read other users post statements like "CUSEEME and WinGate are mutually incompatible" and gave up on this soon.
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5) Performance
WinGate never caused problems on the Win98 client but it did slow down my NT server. I am talking about up to 100% CPU consumption. I had to stop and restart the WinGate service once.
From the client's perspective, the internet access was pretty fast. WinGate does some caching.. which is probably more useful if you have a modem connection instead of cable or DSL.
Using 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps adapters makes no difference for sharing the internet connection, even if you have DSL or cable, but the cost is so low, I would go with the faster NICs. It does make a difference when you share drives!
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6) Pricing
To connect 2 computers, you need 2 NICs (plus maybe a 3rd if you have ADSL or cable modem). The WinGate license runs from anywhere between FREE (older version, see below) to $600 (pro version, unlimited users).
The home version for 2 computers is about $25.
There is no free or "lite" version of Version 3 or 4 (4 is in beta right now, I have not tested it), but you can still download old versions of WinGate here:
Win 95/ 98:
ftp://ftp.wingate.com/pub/wingate/wg21d95.exe
WinNT:
ftp://ftp.wingate.com/pub/wingate/wg21dnt.exe
Hardware cost:
2 NICs, each $15 or $20. Some networking cable, another $20 (depends on length!)
So you can get everything for $80.
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SECURITY ISSUES WITH WINGATE:
I suggest to read this epinion:
http://preview.epinions.com/cmd-review-782E-839D19A-38F117E5-prod6
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
ptiemann
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Member: Peter Tiemann
Location: Capitola, CA
Reviews written: 260
Trusted by: 2822 members
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