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Deerfield.com, publishers of Wingate, have released Version
3.0 of Wingate as of Dec 22, 1998.
The information in these pages generally refers
to the 2.1d version of Wingate, unless otherwise noted.
Further information on Version 3.0 can be found below.
The Version 3 product is very different than the 2.X versions.
See the Wingate 3.0
features for details.
There is not a "free" or "lite" version of
Version 3. However you can still download earlier versions of Wingate,
which include the "free" version, from their FTP
site .
(Download the file wg21d95.exe
for Win95 and wg21dnt.exe
for WinNT.)
Deerfield plans to continue to make these versions available, but will
not sell any new licenses for them. This means that you can use
these versions in the free mode, supporting one shared computer, but can't
expand them to support more than one shared computer.
Downloading Wingate
Now that your local network is set up, you can install the software that
will be used to share your Internet connection. I use Wingate,
mainly because if you have only one sharing Client, the license is free.
Wingate is a proxy server and
has a lot of features... probably more than you want, but it can be simply
configured.
There are other proxy packages available, and the WinFiles
site has a pretty comprehensive listing. However, the following
information deals with getting Wingate properly configured.
First, download the 2.1 version from the
FTP site.
Please note that there have been reports of problems with version
2.1X, mostly involving Wingate's quitting after a few days of use.
If this happens to you, you'll either have to try another product or pay
for a one of the Wingate 3.0 versions.
LAST WARNING! The information that follows
applies to the 2.X versions of Wingate. It does not apply to Version
3.0, especially the "Home" version. Go
here if you want more information on Wingate 3.0.
What services should I install?
After you've downloaded Wingate, go to the icon for the downloaded file
and double click it to launch the installer. It will take you through
a series of install screens. Following the choices below will set up Wingate
to just allow HTTP/WWW proxy. This means that you will be able
to launch a Web browser on your shared Client(s) and after properly
configuring the browser, access the WWW through the proxy server.
If you know what you're doing, you may wish to have Wingate install POP
and SMTP services for email and an NNTP service for News by providing
the requested information during the installation process. (You'll
need to have the names of your ISP's SMTP, and News servers handy.)
If you're not sure of what you're doing and don't understand the questions
that the installer is asking, just keep it simple and only install the
WWW service. You can always add more services later, and just enabling
one service at a time will keep things simple for troubleshooting purposes,
and help keep your installation secure.
