Reviews of WinGate

1. 
   bob68

   Reviewing 7.0.0 Build 3239 Beta (May 31, 2011)

   That's a very old screenshot above.
   
   Sure you can get a proxy going on linux. Even intercepting one with squid + iptables. If you have a couple years.
   
   But WinGate is a lot more than just a proxy. There's a heap more it can do. I think the previous reviewer never can have looked at 7 at all.
   
   The new policy system is simply awesome. Drag and drop your own decisions. I been waiting for something like this for years (literally - WG6 was 2004)... now I get total control over my policy, plus I see how people get through it (path highlighting) and can close it down. Can set different reject messages depending on what you reject on.
   
   Dashboards are another amazing new feature. You can set up switches which control things in policy - like turn on and off auth or scanning or whatever with a click. Can set permissions on dashboard so I can let my manager see some things and click some buttons but not mess with my config. I haven't played with it heaps but it's pretty cool - even get glass effect on meters, and a dinky 14 segment emulated display.
   
   The other cool thing is the timeline. It shows you a real time moving bar-graph of sites people are on (and for how long). You can scroll back in time to see who was on what site when and for how long (and how much data)... like real time report with history.
   
   Still looking through a bunch but this is first impressions, which is that this is HOT!
2. 
   stylemessiah

   Reviewing 7.0.0 Build 3239 Beta (May 28, 2011)

   Used to used this eons ago in the dark ages of dialup.
   
   Then replaced it with a red hat linux box...RH v1...that gives you an idea of how long ago i used it
   
   It was great in its day when it was about the only way to do what it does.
   
   But in todays market its unfortunately and sadly irrelevant software.
   
   A properly configured router or linux box even will do the job with far less tinkering needed on your network.
   
   But it does what it does pretty well, so its a 3
3. 
   psycros

   Reviewing 6.2.1 Build 1113 (Feb 8, 2007)

   Wingate does two things that no cheapo router I've ever seen can do: real-time detailed reports of all traffic, and full NAT while still taking advantage of a proxy cache. Its also just about the only way to share a dial-up connection, which is all that many of us can get (don't even mention XP's Internet Connection Sharing..*gag*). The documentation could be better and some functions are rather cryptic to configure (access policies come to mind). But its still the best software routing solution that I've come across, and I've tried most of them.
4. 
   Serge

   Reviewing 6.0.0.942 Beta 2 (May 27, 2004)

   The best routing progr, more stable than Kerio WinRoute Firewall. Replace with a simple router? But what about caching web-pages, e-mail server, firewall, protection from viruses, etc.?
5. 
   H8TEIRIS

   Reviewing 5.0.4 Beta (Apr 14, 2003)

   Help me out... why do i need this. I can just put 2 nic's I'm my computer and use a little hub and I'm done. Or i can just buy a router.
6. 
   tony1l

   Reviewing 5.0.4 Beta (Apr 13, 2003)

   I used Wingate for more than 2 years, it was great for it's time. Unforunately it's easly replaced with a simple 80 dollar DSL/cable router today. That's about 30+ more than their software sells. I must give Wingate a point for it's good customer service though, they always responded to my "questions" email's within 48hours. But I have to subtract a point because it does require that the "Server" computer stay turned on, and routers do not have such a weakness. I had trouble playing internet games with Wingate in certain circumstances while both my computers were playing on the same game server, again a router based solution has fixed all these issues.
7. 
   james1958

   Reviewing 5.0 Beta F (Aug 8, 2002)

   If you are a network admin, then beware.
   
   This will mess your network if you have a Windows 2000 domain.
   
   Installing it on thegateway server to do what it is supposed to do, rendered the entire network unstable.
   
   One thing that I have to give deefield credit for is their professional support and good customer service.
   
   You'll have to install this on your domain controller, and just how many network admins you know that are willing to put their primary domain controllers as the gateway?
   
   To have full control over the clients you'll have to isntall the buggy crap of the client, and good luck after that with trouble shooting the sudden loss of connection to the domain controller and the inability to retrieve/save your roaming profiles.
   
   If you are a home users or have small network with no romain profiles, no domain controller, just peer to peer network, this will work, but it will be an expensive purchase.
8. 
   mayakovski

   Reviewing 5.0 Beta F (Aug 7, 2002)

   Not very useful, very unstable, especially under window NT. Save your money and buy an internet router such as an SMC barricade.
9. 
   darrenfinlaysmith

   Reviewing 5.0 Beta F (Aug 7, 2002)

   Yes WIngate is Good, Yes Windows XP internet sharing is Good. It all depends what you want to do i would also say xp sharing is for newbie's thats not an attack and i'm not a developer, but it's like all built in features they have limited functions, try setting a static ip to a ethernet mac address with xp internet sharing for instance. NO CAN DO so my xbox has a different ip everytime it reboots make ftp hell. We still need programs like wingate keep it up boys :)
10. 
    mariobro

    Reviewing 5.0 Beta F (Aug 6, 2002)

    I am sure that Wingate is as good of a product as it always has been, but it is now obsolete. Like everything else, Microsoft is shutting down all the little guys by building in functionality.
    
    As far as the 'must be a newbie to use the built in features' comment, I can think of nobody who would write that aside from the developers, as the comment makes absolutely no sense at all. I still rate this program good, but with the comment that it is pointless.
11. 
    Black-Wolf

    Reviewing 5.0 Beta C (Feb 23, 2002)

    This program has better management over built-in s***s, got that??
    
    You must be software newbie in order to know how to use the built-in crappy s***s from 2000/XP... :)
12. 
    robinmthomas

    Reviewing 5.0 Beta C (Feb 23, 2002)

    Not Useful. With WindowsXP it is much easy to check a button then install some third-party program.
13. 
    cranyum

    Reviewing 5.0 Beta C (Feb 22, 2002)

    Wingate had it's day, but unfortunately it seems to be obsolete with internet sharing capablities built into XP, and I believe 2000. I installed Wingate, which worked flawlessly, but removed it when I found this functionality built into XP.
14. 
    kerbysides

    Reviewing 4.1.1 (Jan 24, 2001)

    WinGate has long been known as the best solution for sharing an Internet connection. The release of version 4 has done nothing to hurt WinGate's top reputation, very nice software, and a very nice price.
15. 
    upnorthalicia

    Reviewing 4.1.1 (Jan 24, 2001)

    WinGate was the ONLY Internet sharing software I could download, install, and with just a few clicks be connected to the Internet from all three workstations in my house. The instructions listed on the website were step-by-step and worked like a charm the very FIRST TIME! I am very impressed with WinGate's functionality and intuitive interface. And extremely impressed with it's low price!

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