User counter
This chapter provides a detailed description on how WinRoute checks whether number of licensed users has not been exceeded. This information may be crucial for deciding which type of license (how many users) to buy while purchasing the firewall.
For this purpose, number of unique IP addresses of hosts (clients) protected by the firewall is counted. Each unique IP address represents one user (i.e. one license). Firewall's IP address is excluded.
Note: The WinRoute license does not limit number of user accounts. Number of user accounts does not affect number of licensed users.
The license counter works as follows:
Start WinRoute
Upon WinRoute is started, the table of clients include the firewall only. Number of used licenses is zero.
Note: Table of clients is displayed in the Hosts/Users section in the Administration Console see chapter Hosts and Users.
License counter
Whenever a communication of any WinRoute's client is detected, the IP address is used to identify whether a record does already exist in the table of clients. If not, a new record including the IP address is added to the table and the number of licenses is raised by 1.
The following items are considered as clients:
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All hosts from which users are connected to the firewall
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All clients of the WinRoute's proxy server (see chapter Proxy server)
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All local hosts communication of which is routed between internet interfaces and WinRoute's local interfaces. The following items belong to this group:
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Each host which is connected to the Internet while no user is authenticated from the host,
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All local servers mapped from the Internet,
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All VPN clients connected to the local network from the Internet.
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Note: Internet interfaces are all the firewall interfaces which are used as internet gateways (e.g. primary and secondary internet connection). Other firewall interfaces are considered as local.
License release
Idleness time (i.e. time for which no packet with a corresponding IP address meeting all conditions is detected) is monitored for each record in the table of clients. If the idleness time of a client reaches 15 minutes, the corresponding record is removed from the table and the number of licenses is decreased by 1. Released license can be used by another host.
Counter-excluded items
The following items are not considered and counted as used licenses:
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DNS requests handled by DNS Forwarder (Warning: If clients use a DNS server located outside the local network, such communication is considered as communication with the Internet),
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DHCP traffic (using either the WinRoute's DHCP server or another DHCP server installed on the WinRoute host),
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Local communication between the firewall (e.g. access to shared discs) and hosts from which no user is connected to the firewall.
Deciding on a number of users (licenses)
As cleared by the information provided above, number of licenses in WinRoute must be the same as or higher than the sum of all:
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local hosts (workstations) connecting to the Internet,
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local servers available from the Internet,
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VPN clients that are connected concurrently.
