Basically we always recommend that users upgrade to the latest version of WinGate. Whether you pay to upgrade your license as well (if necessary) is another matter, however there are several reasons why an upgrade is recommended.

The first main reason is to take advantage of any bug fixes. Unfortunately, the reality of software is that it is often impossible to test all possible scenarios, or combinations of hardware and other software. Inevitably, bugs occur. At Qbik we place a high priority on bug fixes, and our policy reflects our belief that it is not right to charge users for them. Therefore since we first released WinGate 1.0 in 1995, we have always maintained a policy of free bug-fixes for all our users regardless of version.

If you are running a recent release of WinGate 8.x0, you should check the FAQ notes for changes since version 8.0 to gauge how you would be affected by the changes.

The second main reason to upgrade is to take advantage of new features. Even though you can still use a license purchased for an earlier version of WinGate with WinGate 8.x, not all features are enabled. To see a list of the features that are controlled by license version, click here.

Activation is a means by which we validate licenses for our products.

Unfortunately, because of the very high levels of piracy, copying of keys, and credit card fraud, we were forced to take steps to protect our products by implementing a system to enforce the terms of our user licensing agreements.

Such systems are now commonly in use in software sold over the Internet, and are known as activation systems, where a customer installing a licensed product is required to activate the license, thereby validating against a central server (at the vendor's site) that the license is valid, was issued by the vendor (and not a crack-key generator) and is able to be used legitimately by the customer.

WinGate's activation system was designed to be easy to use (a simple wizard guides you through the necessary steps to automatically activate your licenses), and flexible enough to allow customers to cope with common problems, such as having to reinstall a server.

The activation software is included with WinGate, and may be run from the WinGate installer, from GateKeeper, or by itself directly. The activation client takes care of all communications with Qbik's activation server, and retrieves the necessary activation files required for WinGate to run on your machine.

There are possibly a couple of reasons you may have trouble activating a license. If there is a problem with the license iteself, activation may be denied, or if you don't have access to the Internet from the machine you are trying to activate WinGate on, you may have to contact us for an activation file.

The Qbik license management software has the capability to provide you an activation request, which can be emailed to us at activation@qbik.com. To access this, follow these instructions

1. go into the license management client, and proceed as if you were activating a license online
2. once you enter the activation part, you will see a "configure" button. Click this
3. select "email activation", and click OK
4. proceed with the activation.

The software will then generate an encoded request, which contains the information we need to generate an activation file which will work on your machine. You need to email us this file at activation@qbik.com. More details are available in the license management software itself.

If you are able to access our activation server, yet your license is not activated, a reason should be given to you by our server. For instance, if the license you are trying to activate had already been upgraded, it is no longer eligible to be used. Contact our sales department at eSupportSales@qbik.com for more information on how to proceed in these circumstances.

To obtain your free 30 day trial for WinGate, simply follow these steps

• Download WinGate from this site
  
• Install it
• Make sure you have an Internet connection available and connected
• When the installer asks you to activate a license, click on the Activation button
• Choose the Add button
• by default, the activation software requests a trial, so click the next button
• you should be done, complete the installation, and reboot.

Who is eligible?
Anyone who has not already been granted a WinGate trial which has expired, is eligible for a free 30 day trial. If you have already trialled WinGate , and your trial expired, then if you try to request another trial activation, the request will be declined. Customers who have trialled previous versions of WinGate may still request a trial for WinGate 8.x. This will not stop you from being able to trial subsequent versions either. The trial activation is linked to the version of the product you are evaluating.

Yes you can. WinGate's activation client will allow you to activate any valid WinGate license, from version 2.0 onwards.

Therefore you can use your license from a previous version in WinGate 8.x, and benefit from the many bug-fixes, and some new features (some of the newer features will require an upgraded license, but you won't lose any), that are available with the new version.

We recommend you request a free trial activation (handled in the activation client software downloaded and run as part of the WinGate installation), to check out WinGate 8.x's new capabilities.

If you are upgrading from a previous release of WinGate 8.x, there should be no configuration changes required.

If you are upgrading from an earlier version, depending on the version you are upgrading from, most of your settings will be carried forwards. There may be some changes required to adapt to several new key ways WinGate 6.0 functions. These are detailed below.

Changes associated with WinGate 6.0's new Dynamic Binding System

Because WinGate 6.0 now dynamically adapts to changes in the networking configuration of your computer, the way services are associated with interfaces had to change. Bindings in services moved from a static system of binding to fixed IP addresses, to using a policy to automatically create and destroy bindings depending on what interfaces are available at any time. Therefore, it may be necessary after upgrading to WinGate 6.0, to do the following:

• Check adapter usage. In GateKeeper, on the Network tab, there is now a Network Connections panel. This shows all adapters recognised by WinGate, and how they are to be treated. If the adapter usage is incorrect for any adapter, it must be changed in order for WinGate to function correctly. To do this, simply double-click on the adapter concerned.
• Check service binding policies. Where you previously had any services that bound to more than one interface, a policy will have been created by default to bind only to internal adapters. If you were previously using some services in WinGate from an external network, you will need to modify the binding policy for those services to make them available from external networks again.

Changes associated with WinGate 6.0's new Gateway Selection System

WinGate 6.0 uses a different method of specifying which services should use which Internet connections. In prior versions, an approximation at this was made, by pre-binding connections to a specified local interface. However, this system didn't take into account multiple gateways available on a single interface, nor did they work well with more than one connection. To overcome this, Gateway Selection was introduced in WinGate 6.0 to more accurately and effectively use multiple Internet connections, providing a greater level of control over the actual use of the connections, allowing for multiple gateways on a single interface, and also monitoring gateway performance to enable fallback to an alternative connection in case of gateway failure.

This means that the Interfaces tab in a service configuration has been replaced by a Gateways tab. Since Interfaces previously were specified on a completely different basis to the way Gateways now are, it was not possible to automatically migrate settings to the new system. Therefore if you were using multiple Internet connections, you should check your service Gateways tab to ensure it is configured how you wish.

Changes associated with WinGate 6.0's new Email System

Substantial changes were made to WinGate's email system from WinGate version 5.x. Most notably the concept of domains owning email addresses. Every effort was made to ensure that previous mail configurations would operate in the same way with WinGate 6.0, by way of some fairly complicated configuration migration code. Nevertheless, it would pay to check mail domain, address (previously alias) settings to ensure continued operation in the desired manner.

There are three ways to backup your configuration if you are concerned that you may need to roll-back an upgrade installation, or need to restore settings. These are:

Choose to backup configuration in the installer When you upgrade, the WinGate installer prompts you if you wish to save a backup of your configuration. This creates a registry file which can be used to import previous configuration settings back into the windows registry.

Backup configuration from GateKeeper Similarly, GateKeeper has a function to export configuration to a registry file. This is available under Options->Advanced options.

Export the WinGate registry key All WinGate settings are stored in the windows registry under the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Qbik Software\WinGate