Can I make a 501 PIX work like WinGate?

Well, not entirely. I was previously protecting my home network with the software firewall/NAT/etc system WinGate. In addition to the dedicated computer running WinGate I had a switch to which I connected the other computers. I took down the WinGate computer and switch and replaced them both with a 501 PIX. In effect, the 501 firewall piece took the place of the WinGate software and the 501's built in 4 port switch took the place of the standalone switch.

Everything now works great except for the fact that NETWORK PLACES (windoows 2000) will not display a list of the attached computers identified by their machine name as it did under the WinGate system. I do believe that WinGate was running a small WINS server as part of its configuration but I'm not certain of that.

Is there any thing I can configure in the 501 that would do whatever it was that WinGate was doing which facilitated NETWORK PLACES's display of the attached workgroup computers. My guess is that it has something to do with the loss of WINS or something to do with the PIX's firewall settings but I'm essentially network illiterate and have been unable to find the right words to answer the question.

The only change I made to the computers was to change from static to DHCP addresses as served up by the PIX.

Thanks for any feedback.

Reply to
jim.wray
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PIX will not act as a WINS server.

On the other hand, in that configuration, you should not need it to act as a WINS server. The four LAN ports on the PIX 501 really are there as a switch: there is no filtering of traffic between the four ports.

Do you have NETBIOS enabled on the Windows systems? If you do not then the way they would have found each other before would have been by talking to the WINS system; if you have NETBIOS enabled then they would find each other via broadcasts.

Reply to
Walter Roberson

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