Intercepting

The Intercepting tab of certain network services, allows you to specify what ports that network service should listen for and intercept, regardless of the connection method a client uses (NAT, WGIC, SOCKS).

Usually proxy network services in WinGate will only listen for proxy requests from clients who have their applications set to use WinGate as a proxy. However, when a network service has the Intercepting proxy feature enabled, it will intercept, handle, and control all connections made to WinGate on the network interface it is bound to, and the service port(s) it is configured to intercept.

When connections are intercepted, they are then handled by the settings available in that network service. If event processors such as the WinGate Policy system have been configured to respond to events registered by the particular proxy service, then the intercepted client traffic will be subjected to the same processing and controls as a normal proxy request.

Intercepting proxy allows you to utilize the setup benefits of the other WinGate client connection methods (NAT, WGIC, SOCKS) while having access to the processing features of the network service where it is set.

To enable intercepts in the Intercepting proxy:

1. Open the WinGate Management console.
2. Navigate to Control Panel > Services.
3. On the Services panel, double click on the appropriate network service that will be intercepting traffic to open its properties.
4. Open the Intercepting tab.

   

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5. Select the Intercept connections... checkbox.
6. Click the Add button, to add the port number(s) that clients connect to the service on and you wish to have intercepted. You can include as many different application ports that you want to be intercepted through the service. Be aware that you can only add service ports that are not currently in use. Applications that connect to WinGate on any port listed in the Intercepting proxy will be forced through the appropriate service.
7. Click OK to accept changes.
8. Reopen the Intercepting tab to see that the port intercept is listed and reading as Started.

Note

Using Intercepting proxy with TCP Mapping services

With TCP mapping services, you can utilize the Intercepting proxy to intercept connections to WinGate on a specified port and force it through the mapping service. You can set any number of ports in the Intercepting proxy for each mapping service, so long as they are not currently in use by any other network service.

Just like the Intercepting proxy on network services, clients that have been configured to use NAT, WGIC, or SOCKS can simply have their application make a connection to anywhere using a service port listed in the Intercepting proxy configuration, and they will be intercepted and forced through the mapping service on WinGate.

This is useful when you want to control what application ports client applications can use through WinGate. You can set a single TCP mapping service to intercept a numerous number of different ports, so that whenever a client application makes a request to WinGate on one of these ports, they can be controlled and directed to a suitable destination by the mapping.

Alternatively, since each TCP mapping service registers the ClientConnect event, it means that you could use a suitable event processor to respond whenever a client makes a connection to WinGate on a port intercepted by the particular mapping.