Monthly Archives: September 2016

How to upgrade WFilter NG Firewall?

“Auto update” feature of WFilter NG firewall can upgrade “protocol pattern database” and “url category database” automatically. By default,  WFilter NG firewall has “auto update” enabled.

However, “auto update” can not perform fireware upgrade. When a new version comes out, you need to manually perform the system fireware upgrade.

This guide demonstrates the steps to perform a fireware upgrade of WFilter NG firewall.

1. Make a backup of current settings.

Please note that upgrade may fail on power supply issue, disk issue… So at first, please export current settings to a backup file in “Config”->”Backup”. In case when you’re unlucky, you don’t need to re-configure the whole system.

2. Click “Check Update now”.

checkupdate2

3. Found a new version, then click “Upgrade”.

checkupdate3

4. Downloading the new firmware.
checkupdate4

5. Confirm the upgrade.
checkupdate5

 

At lease one reboot is required during the upgrading.  All settings and data will persist after the upgrading.

 

WFilter added “Email Notification” in the ISP module.

The ISP module of “WFilter NG firewall” designed for ISPs to manage users and bandwidth plans.

Beside “user web portal”, a recent update of “WFilter NG Firewall” added “Email Notification” feature. So users can get email notification of their bandwidth usage.

isp_emai_notification

As shown in the above diagram, you can set different email alert frequency for “valid users” and “cap exceeded users”, with different email contents.

This feature will be helpful for ISPs who prefer use email alert rather web portal.

WFilter email monitoring solutions for business networks.

Many users asked about email monitoring and recording features of WFilter. Actually, WFilter, including “WFilter Enterprise” and “WFilter NG firewall”, all are able to record SMTP, POP3, IMAP and web-based emails on network. However, there are some limitations of this feature.

This post will discuss WFilter’s email monitoring features and solutions.

1. Monitoring of email clients

An email client receives emails via POP/IMAP protocols, sends emails via SMTP protocol. In today, SSL encryption is widely used for email clients. There are two kinds of SSL encryption: “SSL Connection” and “STARTTLS”. With WFilter, you can:

  • Monitoring emails via plain SMTP/POP/IMAP.
  • Email attachments can also be recorded.

For SMTP/POP/IMAP over SSL, you have two solutions:

Solution 1: block SSL email connections to force email clients using plain email protocols.

block_ssl_mail_en

When blocking is applied, email clients need to be re-configured to disable SSL encryption.

block_ssl_mail_en2

Solution 2: Enable “SSL Email Inspection” with “WFilter NG Firewall”.

This feature can intercept SSL connections and record SSL emails. However, “STARTTLS” still can not be recorded, even “SSL Email Inspection” is enabled. Please check: SSL Email Inspection

2. Monitoring of Web Emails

Web email means receiving and sending emails within a web browser. Please note that web emails received can not be recorded, while http outgoing emails can be recorded by WFilter. Please note:

  1. Outgoing http web emails can be recorded.
  2. Https web emails can not be recorded.
  3. Not all http attachments can be recorded. It depends on the uploading protocol.
  4. For http web emails not recorded, you may contact us for a web email format upgrade.

 

Optimize bandwidth of your network with WFilter NG Firewall.

Sometimes you will come to the following solutions when your internet bandwidth is insufficient:

  1. Use more than one broadband connection.
  2. Block applications which consume much bandwidth. For example, you might use “WFilter Enterprise passby internet content filter windows software” to block downloading and online streaming.
  3. Limit the real-time bandwidth rate for clients. This can be done in your router of firewall.

However, these solutions have disadvantages:

  1. Without access control, using multiple broadband connections can not bring better experience. It because downloading and streaming can easily consume most of your bandwidth.
  2. “Application blocking” can save your bandwidth. However, users experience are impacted. Users will complain about no streaming or downloading.
  3. Rate limiting does not optimize your bandwidth. Users will still complain about slow internet speed.

WFilter NG Firewall brings total solutions for bandwidth optimization.

1. Powerful access control policy

With “Access Policy” modules, you can block p2p downloading, online streaming, streaming websites. Please check: Access Policy

2. Multi-WAN load balancing and routing

In case you have multiple broadband connections, WFilter NG Firewall’s “Multi-WAN” module can help you to:

  • Load balancing on multiple broadband connections.
  • Setup routing policies. For example, a). business servers are routed to a dedicated connection, b). video sites are routed to another connection.

For more details, please check: Muti-WAN

3. Bandwidth priority

With the “Priority” module, traffic with higher priority goes first. For example, you can set business servers traffic to the highest priority. So even the network is extremly busy, servers bandwidth won’t be influenced.

When installed, there are default rules: email > web > p2p and streaming. You also can customize your own rules.

For more details, please check: bandwidth priority

4. Bandwidth shaper

This module is for you to set bandwidth rate for clients. You can set the rate to ip ranges, user group or department.

Each group have a “maximum bandwidth rate” and “minimum bandwidth rate”. The minimum rate ensures the clients to have this bandwidth rate even the line is busy.

For more details, please check: bandwidth shaper
Try WFilter NG Firewall now: WFilter NG Firewall