Learn What is a Wingate.

What is a Wingate.

WinGate is a proxy server firewall software package that allows you to share a single (or multiple) Internet connections with an entire computer network. The Internet connection shared by WinGate can be of nearly any type, including dial up modem, ISDN, xDSL, cable modem, satellite connection, or even dedicated T1 circuits."

Wingate is similar to a proxy server. It connects different computer through port 23 onto a server, which is called a wingate. In fact, it's just a telnet connection. The Wingate will let anyone on the network access the Internet or connect through it to other sites. Due to poorly configured wingates and Administrator's incompetence, there's a lot of wingates that will let anyone on the Internet connect through them, instead of limiting access to people from the local network. Opening the way for anything from an IP spoof on ICQ or irc to full scale abuse. Such wingates are called "Open Wingates" and usually last from anywhere from a few days to maybe a few months until an Administrator either discovers it or gets complaints about some "mysterious" users doing something they shouldn't be. Most likely in that case it's someone connecting over the Internet.

The only benefit for administrators is the ability to put multiple users through the same connection. The problems with it clearly outweigh the benefits. If anyone is going to set up their own wingate, I'd suggest strongly that you know what you are doing and make sure that is configured securely so that only those that are meant to use it, are the ones using it.

Finding wingates.

You can use a wingate scanner (you can download from our site in "scanners" section). You can scan whole subnets for wingates. A note: IP's in third world countries, the Middle East (except Israel), Africa, and on the @home network all have one thing in common: They all have wingates that are poorly configured and there are usually a few open wingates on their networks. Try scanning them 1st and foremost. Through Unix, the best way is: trial and error. telnet to the wingate through port 23, then leave the user name and password blank and if you get in, you've found one. You might also want to try username and/or password as: wingate.

Wingates with ICQ.

To Configure ICQ to work with WinGate:
Go to WinGate Setup Screen and click on the Proxies Tab
Press ADD
Select Type of Proxy: 'Mapped Link'
Press Create
Under the Settings Group check 'Enable Connections To Proxy On Port.' Put the number 3333 in this window.
Set The Socket Type to: 'UDP'
Make sure that 'Destroy Inactive Sessions after XXX seconds' is NOT Checked.
Make sure that 'Enable Default Remote Host' is Checked and set to: icq.mirabilis.com Port: 4000
For each remote machine:
Press Add.
In 'Connect Client IP' enter the IP of the remote machine
In 'To Host' enter icq.mirabilis.com
In 'Port' enter 4000
Press OK
Now press DONE.
You will now be at the main WinGate setup screen.
Make sure that there is a SOCKS4 Proxy Enabled on Port 1080
Press SAVE
Check it out at your remote machine
Remote Machine Configuration
If you still did not pass the ICQ Registration Wizard:
At the Registration Wizard under Connection Type register as a LAN User.
Choose 'I am behind a firewall or proxy.'
Click Next for the next dialog.
Choose either Socks4 or socks 5 server depending on the compatibility of the proxy server
Do NOT mark the firewall sessions time out
click Next for the next dialog.
Enter the servers' IP address using socks port 1080.
Click Next for the next to see if you have succeeded to register.
If you fail to register, you will receive the a dialog telling you so.
Try one or more of the following:
Click Retry to try again using the same settings.
Hit the Back button to change the firewall settings.
Click Cancel to abort. Reconfigure your firewall settings and try again by running ICQ.exe.

Additional Remote Machines.

For any additional Remote Machines on your network, Do exactly the same procedure as specified in Remote Machine. Use EXACTLY the same numbers and setup. You only have to look up the IP address of the Host one time on any one of the remote machines in its HOSTS file.

Wingates with IRC.

Using a Wingate essentially means using telnet to contact the Wingate server at the correct port. Once a connection is made, it is then necessary to quickly telnet to other servers/ports, in order to avoid a timeout error. Note that it is perfectly possible to connect from one Wingate server to another, increasing untracebility, before finally connecting to an IRC server.

Connecting to wingate proxies (IRC).

Having found a Wingate IP, use the mIRC status window and type /server 23. All being well, you should see some "nonsense" ASCII characters. Next type /quote - the connecting sequence will then appear. The next two commands must be entered quickly to avoid a ping timeout: type /quote and then /quote nick . In the first of these commands, it doesn't really matter what the username and words chosen are, or even if they are meaningless jumbles of letters, as long as they are all different. For reference, the first three words normally represent identd, email address, and "real name".

If you are using Wingate, your ident may appear with a tilde (~) - this is because a connection could not be made to your identd server. In some cases you may get a UNIX style prompt rather than a Wingate one - this may be a misconfigured open telnet proxy. On these systems, it is recommended that you not type the host and/or port in the command line, as they are probably logged!

Connecting to socks and squid proxies (IRC).

To configure your IRC client to use a Wingate, simply tell it that you're behind a SOCKS4 or SOCKS5 (again, depending on the Wingate. Try both and see which one of them work) and enter the Wingate's IP. If you are asked for a username and a password, leave these fields blank.