free web based proxy

Windows Strengths and Weaknesses
The overwhelming majority of computers, both personal and corporate, apply Microsoft Windows, which has included Internet access for brim over a decade and as Windows became harder, so has its Internet connectivity software. Windows 98 2d Edition introduced Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to provide aggroup access to the Internet from a local network. A lot complexities were added with the outbreak of Routing and Remote Access Service in Widows 2000 Server with it has Network Address Translation (NAT) functions.

It took awhile ahead experts noticed that ICS has specific shortcomings. ICS alterations network card addresses, which can cause problems on intranets. Because of this, ICS can only be used inch small office or home networks and even then, Intelligence Community* in office networks is not recommended, because there has no user authorization or validation with ICS. Even applying it on a home network makes any connection to the Internet insecure, since it is so easy as criminals to gain access to your computers by altering where they are coming from (their IP and macintosh addresses).

Some Help is Needed
Windows can organize cyberspace sharing, but security has never been a forte. In practice either hardware or software solutions from additional companies are generally purchased to provide the security answers needed. One of the more important of these are UserGate Proxy Server.

UserGate Proxy Server provides local electronic network users with a secure Internet access by defining insurance policy* of this access, forbidding particular Internet resources, and bounding traffic or time of a user’s work on the Internet. Additionally, UserGate can keep distinct traffic calculations by users and of protocols, which greatly simplifies Internet dealings cost control. Lately, among Internet Service Providers (ISP) there is been a tendency towards unlimited traffic and as that purpose, UserGate Proxy Server provides a very compromising system of rules.

UserGate Proxy Server with NAT abide works on Windows 2000/2003/XP with the cyberspace (using the standard TCP/IP protocols). UserGate can as well work on Windows 98 and Windows NT forty, but without NAT support. UserGate does not require whatever special resources for its operation; it simply needs an relatively small amount of hard drive memory for it has cache and log files. UserGate can also be established on a dedicated computer to maximize your network’s imaginations.

Proxy Servers
Your web browser (whether it is cyberspace Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Netscape, Opera or Mozilla to advert the most popular) is already able to cache paperses. However, significant disk space is not reserved for this purposes if the Internet connection is shared by a entire office. The reason for this is that the probability of one person visiting the same web foliates is far less than if dozens or hundreds by people are sharing the connection. Creating a common hive up for a company can greatly decrease bandwidth waste also as make almost instantaneous the receipt of paperses that are commonly accessed by employees. UserGate Proxy host can also link with the external cascade proxy hosts (of your Internet Service Provider) to increase the accelerate of receiving data and reduce your Internet bills (dealings costs for a provider are usually less when an proxy server is used).

Program Configuration
Configuring the hive up settings is done from the «Services» page. The initiative is to enable the cache, then you are able to set its separate options, which include caching of base requests, dynamic objects, cookies, and FTP content. You are able to also set the size of the disc space as the cache and the time-to-live of cached documents.

Additional options must also be set before you can begin working with the program. As a rule, this chore is completed in the following order:

1. Create drug user* of the program.

2. Configure DNS and NAT about the UserGate server. At this stage you can configure NAT using the wizard.

3. Set parameters of the various protocols (HTTP, FTP, SOCKS), the intranet interface about which they will be listened for, and whether cascading down will be done. All of these can chevvy at their corresponding pages of service settings.

4. Configure the network connection on each client computer, including gateway and DNS in TCP/IP in network connection attributes, which must be set.

5. Create an Internet accession policy.

Modules to Make Things Easier
To make the program more user-friendly, we divided it into several faculties:

The Server module is started at a computer that is Internet access. This module controls the execution by all tasks.

UserGate administration is performed with the aid of a special module: UserGate Administrator, which handles altogether server settings.

UserGate Authentication Client is a client application program installed on each user’s computer. This module monitors and controls user authorization to the UserGate server, if you choose an authorization independent of IP or IP+macintosh.

Security and Permissions
UserGate Proxy Server locks out unauthorised access. Each user can be authorized automatically by their IP address alone or by a correct combination by IP and hardware (MAC) address. Each user can comprise assigned specific permissions

To make it easy to add users and to quickly assign the same permissions to a group of similar users a separate page are provided for the managing of users and groups. Aggroups make it easy to manage users that should accept common settings, including network access and rates. You are able to create as many groups as you need. Groups is usually created based on company structure and hierarchy.

Apiece group can be given its own rate i.e. used to manage Internet access expenses. A default charge per unit can be set or left empty, in which caseful the connections of all users in a group is not paid unless a different rate is set inch a user’s own properties.

There are a number by default NAT rules provided in the program. These is access rules through Telnet, POP3, SMTP, HTTP, ICQ and other protocols. While setting group properties you can describe which rules will be applied to the group and its users.

A dial on demand option can comprise used when an Internet connection is through a modem. In this case the modem dials up the association only when it is requested. Dial on demand can buoy also be used with ADSL, if in order to get connected to the Internet provider it is essential to dial up a VPN connection. In this caseful the VPN connection can be set as dial about demand.

If a computer with UserGate is in a Active Directory domain, users can be imported thereto and then divided into groups that need similar accession rights: authorization type, rate, NAT rules (if group conventions do not fully meet the user’s needs).

Authorization cases and Rules
UserGate Proxy Server supports several authorization cases, including authorization through Active Directory and Windows Login, which allows integrating UserGate into existing network infrastructures.

UserGate applies its own client authentication module for some types by authorization. Depending on the type of authorization you decide it is necessary to indicate, in user options, either the user’s IP address (or IP address range), allot a login (username and password) or assign just an username. If you want to send to a drug user, reports of their Internet traffic use you can accede the user’s e-mail here.

UserGate rules can be a lot flexibly configured than RRAS Remote Access Policy. Using conventions you can lock access to specific URLs, limit dealings on certain protocols, set time limits, set a level best file size that a user can download, etc. Windowpanes does not provide the functionality needed to fulfill this tasks.

Rules can be created with the help by the wizard provided. Each rule has application conditions and an object it is executed when one or a lot conditions are met. For examples, close a connection, allot a rate or speed, etc. Conditions include protocols applied, time of work, a user’s traffic limits (incoming and outgoing), money remaining on account, as well as, IP list and URL list. Settings also allow the specifying of any file extensions that users cannot download.

In a number of organizations the use of blink of an eye messengers, such as ICQ, is prohibited. This is at ease with UserGate. To prohibit ICQ you simply create an rule, locking out any connection with the host ‘*log on.icq.com*’ and apply it to all users.

UserGate Proxy Server provides rules to allow varying rates as day or night time access, to local or basal resources (if such variations are offered by your cyberspace provider). For instance, for switching between around-the-clock rates two rules are created: one that performs the switching at a fixed time from day this evening rate and the other that switches back to the day rate.

DNS and NAT Settings
DNS (DNS System) is what is used on the Internet and so you don’t have to remember a site’s numbers (it has real Internet address), such as 53.128.182.lxvii), but instead you can just remember its name, such www.famatech.com. One of the controlling breaks of the Internet’s DNS is the DNS server, which is a computer (there are many DNS servers) about the Internet that translates the names of sites to their numbers, so when your browser goes to cyberspace.famatech.com, the DNS server knows the correct informatics number to send the browser request to.

The domain name setting in UserGate Proxy Server is simply the emplacements (IP addresses) of one or two of these domain name servers (the closer the DNS server is to your ISP’s physical location, generally the better), where each customers DNS requests will be forwarded to. It is essential to indicate the IP address in your network port of UserGate Proxy Server as the gateway and domain name in the TCP/IP properties of each user’s electronic network connection on their local computer.

There is another agency to set the DNS. You can add afresh NAT rule, in which the IP receiver (the home interface) and the IP sender (the external interface) is set to port 53 and the protocol to UDP. If you use this method, this rule must comprise applied to all users. In connection settings of each local computer, the IP address of the ISP’s domain name servers must be set as the DNS and the IP address of UserGate Proxy Server set as the gateway on each local computer.

Mail clients can chevvy either through port mapping or through NAT. Whenever instant messengers are allowed to be used in the organization, the network settings must be changed for it: both user firewall and proxy, the IP address by the internal network interface of UserGate Proxy Server moldiness be indicated, and the protocol HTTPS or SOCKS asks be selected. If you use Yahoo Messenger, you had better keep in mind that when you work through an proxy server, Yahoo’s chat rooms and video chats is unavailable.

Statistics for each user are recorded in an log. These include data on the time each association started, its duration, total cost, the URLs and informaticses visited, the number of bytes received and bytes aired. It is impossible to cancel or falsify the commemorating of any of this information about user connections inch UserGate Proxy Server’s statistics file. The statistics can comprise viewed either from the Server Administrator or from an special module Statistics. Statistics data can be filtered along user, protocol and time period; and these stats can buoy be exported to Microsoft Excel for further processing.

The early versions of UserGate Proxy Server cached only hypertext transfer protocol (web) pages. The latest version introduced new components configured to guarantee information security. Now UserGate users can capitalize on the built-in firewall and Kaspersky Antivirus faculties. The firewall can control (permit or block) specific transmission control protocol ports and can also publish a company’s resources about the Internet. UserGate Proxy Server processes all packets accepted from the network. Every port that is open inch the program, for example HTTP, SOCKS and others, is either selected by the administrator or can be opened in the firewall automatically. You can see which embrasures are open in the auto rules table on the Firewall Rules page.

Future development plans for UserGate placeholder Server include creation of its own VPN server—and so you have an alternative VPN solution to that bade by Windows—an introduction of a mail server that is its own antispam support and the development by an intelligent firewall at the application level.

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