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vSphere or VMware ESX 4.0 introduced a number of interesting features, among which the possibility to upgrade your virtual hardware to version 7 from version 4 (that was default in previous ESX 3.x world).

This upgrade, achieved right clicking on the virtual machine in VI Client and select “Upgrade Virtual Hardware”, will inject cool steroids in your virtual machine (but makes it also not backward compatible with VI 3.x anymore).

A positive side effect of such steroids is the ability to increase the number of NICs in your VM as shown below.

Continue reading »

written by RoarinPenguin - 1,737 views \\ tags: ESX 4, stonegate, virtual appliance, Virtualization, vsphere

Couple of days ago, my Google Alert agent reported me a link to a page titled Windows 7 Stonesoft VPN Client V5 Installation Windows Live.

Bit curious about what this could be, I clicked on it and I found a web album by one of our customers who tried installing our VPN Client 5 on Windows 7.

He was so happy about results, that he decided to post the screenshot on his web album (and he authorized me to republish it here below):

Stonians are everywhere, thanks Jörg!

written by RoarinPenguin - 1,092 views \\ tags: stonegate, vpn client 5, windows 7

Do you want to try StoneGate in your virtual environment? SVDK is for you!

SVDK stands for StoneGate Virtual Demo Kit and it is a free kit allowing you to setup a simple yet powerful virtual playground, thanks to a set of ready made virtual machines for VMware platforms (ESX/ESXi, VMware Server, Workstation, etc).

The playground network schema is reported below:

It is available now in StoneBlog Community.

Happy testing!

written by RoarinPenguin - 1,325 views \\ tags: demo, stonegate, svdk, virtual playground

With the help of StoneGate 5.0 administrators can configure HTML user responses that are shown in the end user’s web browser. The idea of HTML user responses is to inform the end-users why hey got banned.

The administrator can customize the HTML user responses for the following cases:

• Connection blacklisted
• Connection refused by access rule
• Connection terminated by inspection rule
• URL not allowed
• Virus found

For each case the administrator can decide whether to:

• Close silently the TCP connection
• Redirect the user to specified URL
• Show customized HTML response

You can for example notify your end-users that their web browser is outdated. You can of course make things as smooth as possible for the end-user and include the link to update the browser in the customized HTML user response.

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,449 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, IPS, SMC, stonegate

StoneGate IPS 5.0 allows you to protect your hosts and servers against attacks that are hidden inside HTTPS. Here are a couple of use cases what you may want to try with the StoneGate 5.0:

Client side protection:

• Detect and block attacks targeting the client Web browsers inside SSL tunnel.
• Protecting workstations and internal networks from malicious web servers.

Server side protection:

• Detect and block attacks targeting the HTTPS server inside SSL tunnel
• Protecting the server being compromised by the unauthorized uses

The HTTPS Inspection feature also provides support for usage of Certificate Revocation List (CRL). That list is updated via SMC.

You can also whitelist the Web sites you don’t want to inspect. There is a new HTTPS inspection policy element where you are supposed to add your users’ bank services etc.

written by Tero Jantunen - 3,477 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, IPS, SMC, stonegate

Found this very odd picture in my PC, showing how “extremely flexible” can a StoneGate be:

Picture was related to a test with a hardware vendor we’ve made in 2003, with a prototype that was not in that elegant shape yet.

What about you? Did you ever experienced StoneGate in particular configurations, like many nodes, odd hardware, etc?

Let us know!

written by RoarinPenguin - 873 views \\ tags: extreme, hardware, stonegate

Does your log browser become sometimes full of antispoofing and discard messages so that you don’t find any relevant information from the logs anymore. StoneGate Firewall/VPN 5.0 introduces a new feature that allows you to compress the antispoofing and discard messages per engine or per physical interface. You can find these settings from the Firewall engine properties dialog.

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,381 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, stonegate, stonegate firewall

This restriction can be made for the whole engine or just for some physical interface of the engine. The engine can figure out the optimal values automatically or you can set custom values for the SYN flood restriction.

written by Tero Jantunen - 6,437 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, SMC, stonegate, stonegate firewall

Do you want to customize the PDF templates before showing the reports to your Management people or your customers? StoneGate 5.0 introduces a new dialog for configuring the PDF style templates.

You can select and create new style templates directly from “Print to PDF…” dialogs. When you configure the template, you just need to import your company’s PDF template and specify what pages of that document are shown always in the beginning of PDF printouts (e.g. cover page & instructions), what is the base page for those pages that contain the actual data and what pages are shown in the end of the printout (e.g. disclaimers).

It has been possible to configure the PDF templates manually in earlier SMC versions. If you have done that, just import the PDF you were using and specify the settings mentioned above.

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,133 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, SMC, stonegate

Did you know that StoneGate log events refer to each other? StoneGate Management Center 5.0 contains now even better support for different type of log references. With a single click you can drill-in to the related and referenced log events. Log references are now categorized and indexed that makes your log reference queries more efficient than ever.

The superior technical implementation allows the administrator to browse the log records on several abstraction layers and the system provides convenient shortcuts for navigating between the different layers. With a single click you can drill-in to 20 different types of related/referenced log event categories. In the Firewall logs, you can e.g. view all the records from the VPN connection the selected log event is using. In the IPS logs, you can easily view the Scan or DoS detection records that are related to the records you are currently viewing.

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,554 views \\ tags: 5.0, Features, logs, SMC, stonegate