One feature request, and a general advice

[cyberjunkie]

I tried some other gateway before installing Untangle, but i stopped experimenting after i tested this wonderful product.
I have just a small inconvenience (that would be more relevant if Untangle will follow the route that i suggest in the second part of my post):
the network card that i intended to use as internal got the external role, and viceversa.
maybe i missed something, but i couldn't find a way, either during the initial config process, or from the http/https client, to reverse the use of the two ethernet cards i have.
The result is that my gigabit lan card is connected to the router and the other card (10/100) is connected to the internal network (all gigabit, including the switch, with a wi-fi "n" extension).
For the moment it makes no practical difference at all, given the Internet bandwidth currently available (7mbit ADSL at my home), but where i used to live there are already 20mbit fiber connection (as at my girlfriend's home), with real throughput reaching 13mbit.
More about it in the second part of my post.

Performance-wise, Untangle is doing its job very well, as i assembled a machine with a pile of scrap materials:
the mobo is equipped with a Pentium III 1000, and the chipset is a very so-and-so VIA, with 1GB sdram. The two lan cards are both cheap Realtek's, one a recent Gigabit and the other an old 10/100.
The motherboard came free, it was replaced time ago because of misuse (shorted USB ports), a problem that made any keyboard not available (PS/2 or USB).
I took out the metal casing of the two USB ports with a Dremel, and the board was alive again!
Even with heavy TCP and UDP port redirection this humble hardware keeps up with Untangle, allowing for better peer2peer performance than the previous router (a very good Zyxel).
I started with no applications at all, cause i was afraid of the little power of the hardware, but as i am adding more and more free applications (including Antivirus and VPN), i see no performance degradation, even with five clients connected!
Thumbs up for Untangle developers!

After incensing them, a small advice for the developers:
why don't allow for external applications, something like plugins?
There are various addons that could be very interesting, expecially if installed on recent hardware with enough RAM.
I searched Google for the availability of packages for Untangle, and the only thing i could find was a blog from a chap who's experimenting Untangle with Asterisk and Samba. The bad thing is that what's still missing are the Untangle packages!
I don't see why the Untangle team is not publishing a guideline for building extra packages for their software. Of course they could caution against using the extra packages on production applications, cause of possible security breaches. But there are many home (and also small office) users that would be happy to get something more from the Untangle machine.
Here are a couple of suggestions:
Basic NAS application, using Samba
FTP server (good for backup also)
BitTorrent client (maybe with separate HTTP control)

Another minor complaint: why don't give the choice to select the keyboard type?
Issuing complicate commands at the terminal with a non-USA keyboard is a real PITA...

These are just my humble opinions.
I work with computers but i'm no network guru, and i mostly forgot what i have learnt long time ago about Linux, but i'd love to get some feedback from forum users, to know if somebody else agrees with me..or thinks that i'm plain wrong!

have fun

CJ

[mdh]

If you go to CONFIG->NETWORKING->INTERFACES, look for the crosses in front of the interface names, and drag one to where you want it to be. The other one will move and that problem will be solved.

If you are good at Linux, go to the Untangle web site and look for the DEVELOPER link. You will find how to chat via IRC with Engineering folks who may be able to answer your questions. Just remember that a modified box will not be able to be supported by Untangle Support due to customization...you're on your own or supporting it via the forums.

The keyboard type is coming with internationalization. Give us a little while and you'll have what you want.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

[cyberjunkie]

Very quick and very helpful!
Sorry but i couldn't find on the forum the trick of swapping the network interfaces from the graphical java client.
I am not a developer, i work as part time sysadmin for small office networks, mostly Windows PCs, and some Mac's.
So i have no expertise in tweaking and adding extra apps to an Untangle box.
But the more i think about it, the more i develop an opinion about Untangle future developement:
any product, even the best one, need to get a critical mass of users and developers, to become really popular and successful.
If the Untangle team will release a guideline for developing "plugins" for their platform, many users with developing skills will make by themselves what they personally need, or package an already existing GPL application for installation on Untangle. Most of them will be happy to share with the community their work, and that will give to Untangle users more choices, and to the Untangle team a bigger installed base.
Of course all the extra packages would be unsupported, with the strong advice to avoid them on production installations.
I can't see how it would hurt the professional users and the revenues of the Untangle team. A larger installed base and a lively developers community is only a bonus, in my opinion. But the main advantage, business-wise, would be to stress the flexibility of the Untangle solution, vs. the hardware appliances; the chance that a business user would choose Untangle just because of the availability of that special application, that can be added to the standard installation, is not remote.
The examples i gave on my previous post are very simple, and don't hog system resources: Samba, FTP server, and sometimes a BitTorrent client are available on a very cheap (little more than 100 euros) SAN, or networked HD, if you prefer. Those boxes are Linux based, and have a ridiculous cpu and very little RAM.

Untangle is so well done and graphically polished, and the support is so good, that it deserves a large and active developers community.
A downloadable guideline would be nice, but maybe the right solution would be to tweak a little bit Untangle, to allow for easy installation of "plugins".
I think that the Untangle developers team has other priorities at the moment, but i hope that sooner or later they will contemplate the use of "pluggable modules".

have fun

CJ

[sky-knight]

The interface flipping isn't PART of the java interface.

If you follow mdh's instructions (CONFIG->NETWORKING->INTERFACES)

That is the config tab on the left, networking button... interfaces tab in the NEW web browser that just opened. You will see all the interfaces in Untangle listed, each interface on the right hand side has a cross on it. That cross can be used to drag and drop the interfaces around into whatever configuration you want.

[mrunkel]

I see that you write that you are not a developer, so I'll try to translate what mdh said above: There is a very well defined process for integrating any product you want into the untangle platform. You can review this process at wiki.untangle.com. Our development team is also freely available in the untangle IRC channel on freenode.

We are more than happy to integrate any well executed additions to the untangle platform.

That being said, we are a small company, and have a long list of items that we want to include in the product, so we're trying to get them in as fast as possible.

If you simply want to request a functionality enhancement, I suggest you submit a request at bugzilla.untangle.com as that is the official way to get features added to the product.

Thanks so much for the kind words! And we're very happy you like the product.