I tried Untangles "Re-Router" product yesterday...very cool

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YeOldeStonecat

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Untangle recently released their "Re-router" product. It's a special package designed to be installed on a PC running Windows XP. Using just the single NIC of the PC, this special package installs their VMWare host product, with all the settings automatically setup for you. It puts Untangle in "bridged mode". With some special magic..it will detect your gateway, and...I've yet to figure out the details...but I think it's with some special mac spoofing tricks...it will force all other PCs on your network to pass their internet bound traffic through it.

You can download it, they also have a 1 gig USB drive you can get called "The Magic Bullet".

***I'll borrow a cut 'n paste from my post on their forums***

I took an existing rig we had at the office, XP Pro sp3, already joined to active directory, logged in with a domain user with local admin privs.
Dell Optiplex..oh, gx280 I think, small form factor, if I recall a P4ht 2.8, 1 gig of RAM, with an integrated Broadcom Xtreme 57xx gig NIC.

Stuck in the Silver Bullet USB drive, auto play menu launched, clicked on the icon to install Untangle. About 10-ish minutes of install process..watched Untangle and VMWare install, prompted for a reboot with the choices if show Untangle service icon in the systray, and auto start the Untangle service upon reboot. Which I left both on default for yes. It tells you it may take up to 30 minutes to finish installed Untangle when you reboot.

Rebooted...seemed to take about 20 minutes to finish installing.

Installation asks a quick question about your network..showing network settings, if the gateway is correct, etc.

Once up and running, right click the systray icon for Untangle, log in just like normal...the standard Java based console, and web based Alpaca network config. Could also bring up the VMWare virtual adapter manager, and see the two virtual adapters the package installed, #1 and #8,...one at a 192.168.44.xxx address, the other at a 192.168.242.xxx address, our internal network was 10.50.1.xxx.

We took at laptop which had been connected wirelessly, and tried to surf playboy and hustler sites. Quickly stopped by the default settings of Untangles web content filter.

Didn't do anything fancy during the install, followed the default prompts. It puts an icon on the desktop, I've read over on their forums that some of the users may forget that it's an auto starting service, and try to launch it again by double clicking the desktop icon.

Resource wise, on the 2.8 w/1 gig of RAM rig, during the Untangle service starting after booting up the rig...the PC will be a little unresponsive for a while til it's up and running. Untangle itself was taking about 415 megs of RAM, and CPU dancing around 7-10% without anything else going on.
 
It's a cool product which allows you to "test drive" their Untangle platform...see if you like it. More of sales tool...test bed, then something you'd actually want to use in a production environment. For business networks you'd still want a dedicated box for it.
 
I have been running it at home. Been trying at work, but, I don't think the system I am using is up to par. I have more ram on order, an I think I am going to try to switch out the CPU for a faster one I have.

Its pretty neat. I wish they had the re-router setup that would install its own OS instead of running in a VM in VM player. Would give more system resources to untangle.
 
If I was to run this at home, could this possibly run on an Intel Atom box with 1gb of ram for a grand total of maybe 5 devices?
 
Holy crap. That's SWEEEEEEEET!!!!!

I could definitely see this in networks of under 5-10 users, or even home users.

I still don't understand how the traffic from 192.168.1.1 is getting automatically passed to this regular node on the network...
 
TechieSooner said:
Holy crap. That's SWEEEEEEEET!!!!!

I could definitely see this in networks of under 5-10 users, or even home users.

I still don't understand how the traffic from 192.168.1.1 is getting automatically passed to this regular node on the network...
Click to expand...

nat?
 
Destonomos said:
nat?
Click to expand...

What about outbound traffic?


One of the big things of the regular Untangle at least: no router reconfiguration needed... Hence the keyword: "bridge".

This isn't much of a bridge if you've got to reconfigure your routers.
 
Its total plug n play, at least the windows version is. There are some people running the standalone package on atom hardware.

Re-router will not work with smart switches. There is a wiki that describes how it works.
 
sc0tty8 said:
Its pretty neat. I wish they had the re-router setup that would install its own OS instead of running in a VM in VM player. Would give more system resources to untangle.
Click to expand...

They do have a full Untangle virtual machine you can download and install in the full version of VMWare.

Or of course, as is the recommended approach for best performance, and production environments, their full install onto dedicated hardware.

This Silver Bullet is aimed more at being a sales tool, and a way to "test drive" the product without doing any reconfiguration of the network. IE..you can plop it in at a potential client...let it run for a week or so, and show them how it can cut down SPAM, and provide content filtering and reporting.
 
Ehh, I am having problems with both versions. I tired a standalone machine and re-router. The second untangle starts it stops all network traffic. Ahaha I have no idea what I should do. Looks like I am going to have to come in on the weekend and try this out cause I can't be cutting people off during the workday. Sucks that this small company doesn't have a back up line so I could test it on in a private lan.
 
Jutsu said:
Ehh, I am having problems with both versions. I tired a standalone machine and re-router. The second untangle starts it stops all network traffic. Ahaha I have no idea what I should do. Looks like I am going to have to come in on the weekend and try this out cause I can't be cutting people off during the workday. Sucks that this small company doesn't have a back up line so I could test it on in a private lan.
Click to expand...

You could plant it between two machines.

But at any rate, how much are you trying to configure it? Leave it as default as possible (Set your gateway/Interface settings but that's it)

Default= pass all traffic.
 
I should have been clearer

What I mean is that, the second Untangle finishes loading ALL network communication stops. All my clients lose connection to our servers and the internet. Untangle itself freezes up and I can't do anything. So I haven't been able to launch the Admin Console or configure a thing. :( It only happens when it is connected to the network. If I unplug it from the network and throw it on my isolated test network Untangle works fine. And my network becomes responsive again.

Something about my network doesn't like Untangle and when it gets a taste, it pukes all over itself. I am not sure why, I am going to have to set some time aside to test it.
 
Jutsu said:
I should have been clearer

What I mean is that, the second Untangle finishes loading ALL network communication stops. All my clients lose connection to our servers and the internet. Untangle itself freezes up and I can't do anything. So I haven't been able to launch the Admin Console or configure a thing. :( It only happens when it is connected to the network. If I unplug it from the network and throw it on my isolated test network Untangle works fine. And my network becomes responsive again.

Something about my network doesn't like Untangle and when it gets a taste, it pukes all over itself. I am not sure why, I am going to have to set some time aside to test it.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest the Untangle forums, they know a ton more about particulars like that...
 
Looks like a show-off product to me, but i can see it being pretty useful to many people who arent computer professionals. Great idea though, gorra admit.
 
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