5.4 beta for Windows available!

[jcoffin]

Hey!
We have some exciting new things in 5.4-Falcon that we would love to
have your help testing.

We've continued to make Untangle easier to install and use.
We feel its already much easier than alternatives as its free and you
can download and run it on any machine, but it still requires a
dedicated PC with two NICs and enough memory.

So the big news:

5.4 includes a VM version of Untangle that runs out-of-line on any
Windows XP machine. Future releases will support other Window versions.
It installs on Windows XP machine on the network just like a normal
application (no need to be at the gateway - *any* Windows XP desktop will do)

It runs Untangle in a VM inside the Windows machine and uses what we call
our "re-routing" technology to re-route all inbound and outbound traffic
through the Untangle in the VM. This means it behaves just like a gateway
yet it runs on any machine on the network.
The net effect is that you get all the complete benefits of Untangle
and it installs like a Windows application, with no dedicated
hardware and no network reconfiguration.

We're pretty excited about this as its never been done this way in the
industry and we think this approach is very promising. While we think
that dedicated hardware is a more ideal solution in many cases, this
removes so much friction for those not willing to buy new hardware and
makes the install/trial of Untangle extremely easy.

How you can help:
We need some help testing this out and knowing what works, what doesn't,
and what issues we're going to face. As I said, this is a new approach
so there are a lot of unknowns.

I wouldn't run this on a production network. A good way to test is to
put a linksys type thing in front of you to create your own personal
network with a couple machines, one of which will be used to run
Untangle. By default it filters all hosts on the same subnet as the DHCP
address it gets.

I'd run it on a Windows machine with plenty of resources so you can
dedicate enough to the Untangle VMware instance running on the machine.
The machine doesn't need 2 NICs nor be installed "in-line." You should
make sure there is only one Untangle "re-router" on the network.
After it's running, Untangle re-routes traffic by carefully juggling the
mac address table on each host and the gateway so that all inbound and
outbound (but not intranet) traffic passes through the Untangle VM.

You may have brief network disconnections while Untangle is starting and
stopping. If you unplug the machine running Untangle the network should
return to normal within a few minutes once the mac tables on the hosts
start to time out (this can take up to ten minutes on some OS's). If you
shutdown Untangle the network should return to normal.

Known issues with current installer - READ THESE BEFORE USING! :
- remember this is an *beta* release

Major known issues (these will be edited and kept up to date)
- This version runs best on Windows XP SP2 or SP3. It does run on Windows
Vista but the user will NOT have access to the internet. It is not
recommended on Windows 2003 or 2008 server.
- Please choose the static IP address option in the installer. There is currently a bug
for DHCP configuration and will be fixed shortly.
- If run on vista you need to allow the installer to do run scripts.

Minor known issues:
- There are command window popups during the completion of installation after
reboot. Please do not close these windows as they are debug windows and will
close once the installation completes.
- If the computer has a wireless connection, disable it and use wired
ethernet port
- Disable sleep mode especially on laptops.

You can download the installer here:
edit: linked removed (download the current build from the download page)

Please give it a try and report back with any thoughts/experiences!

ps - Not interested in the Windows version? Thats fine. Well have the
traditional Untangle 5.4 beta release soon.

[westgj]

It runs Untangle in a VM inside the Windows machine and uses what we call
our "re-routing" technology to re-route all inbound and outbound traffic
through the Untangle in the VM. This means it behaves just like a gateway
yet it runs on any machine on the network.
The net effect is that you get all the complete benefits of Untangle
and it installs like a Windows application, with no dedicated
hardware and no network reconfiguration.

-----------------------------------

So are you saying that the XP box doesn't need to be at the perimeter of the network? If so, then how do the apps filter Internet traffic all through a single point?

Greg

[far182]

Is this for testing and evaluation purposes only? I hope so. The endpoint security space is already over crowded.

[dmorris]

So are you saying that the XP box doesn't need to be at the perimeter of the network? If so, then how do the apps filter Internet traffic all through a single point?

All the traffic of the hosts gets rerouted through the untangle running in the VM. Its effectively the same as a gateway - its just not physically inline.

[dmorris]

Is this for testing and evaluation purposes only? I hope so. The endpoint security space is already over crowded.

This isn't endpoint security - this is gateway security on an endpoint.
As far as we can tell not only is this idea not crowded - its never been tried.

[FiKTiV]

This is all very interesting!
I will certainly take it for a test in my VM environment.

[dmorris]

This is all very interesting!
I will certainly take it for a test in my VM environment.

excellent! let us know how it goes.

[abhishek2101]

very interesting!!!

[jcoffin]

Is this for testing and evaluation purposes only?

I'm running this version on the home network consisting of 5 desktops/laptops. The family didn't even notice the switchover as it started.

[dmorris]

I'm running this version on the home network consisting of 5 desktops/laptops. The family didn't even notice the switchover as it started.

Except now they can't get to porn sites!