27

Chapter 5

Accessing SmoothWall Express

In this chapter:

•

How to access SmoothWall Express for the first time

•

Connecting to the Internet if you are using a modem

•

Checking for updates

•

More resources.

Accessing SmoothWall Express for the First Time

Note:

The examples in the following sections are illustrated using Mozilla Firefox. You can access and

administer SmoothWall Express using a browser of your choice.

To access SmoothWall Express for the first time:

1

In the browser of your choice, enter the address of your SmoothWall Express, for example:

https://

192.168.72.142:441

Note:

The example address uses HTTPS to ensure secure communication with SmoothWall Express.

You can use HTTP on port 81 if you are satisfied with less security.

2

Accept SmoothWall Express’s certificate.

3

When prompted by your browser, enter the following information:

4

Click

OK

. The Control > home page opens. What is displayed on the Control > home page depends

on how you have configured SmoothWall Express during installation.

Field

Information

Username

Enter admin. This is the name of the default SmoothWall Express administrator

account.

Password

Enter the password you specified for the admin account when installing

SmoothWall Express.

Accessing SmoothWall Express

Accessing SmoothWall Express for the First Time

28

If you have configured SmoothWall Express to use NICs only, the following is displayed:

If you have configured SmoothWall Express to use NIC(s) and a modem or ISDN card for

Internet connectivity, the following is displayed:

5

If you are using NICs only, see

Installing Updates

on page 33 for more information on how to

proceed. If you are using a modem, see

Connecting Using a Modem/ISDN Card

on page 29 on

how to get connected.

29

SmoothWall Express

Installation Guide

Connecting Using a Modem/ISDN Card

If during installation, you configured your network type to use a modem or ISDN card to connect

to the Internet or external network, the following is displayed:

To connect using a modem or ISDN card:

1

Browse to the

Networking > ppp settings

page:

Accessing SmoothWall Express

Connecting Using a Modem/ISDN Card

30

Note:

The settings available depend on if you are using a modem or ISDN card.

2

Consult the connection information your ISP has provided and then enter the following

information:

Setting

Information

Profile name

Enter a descriptive name for the connection.

Interface

From the drop-down list, depending on the type of connection you are creating,

select one of the following:

Modem on COM

– the modem and the COM port it is on

Single ISDN

– if your connection uses single ISDN

Dual ISDN

– if your connection uses dual ISDN

PPPoE

– if your connection is Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet

ADSL

– if your connection uses an ADSL modem.

Computer to modem

rate

The default is usually sufficient and ensures that modems with data

compression capabilities run at their maximum possible speed.

Note:

Old 486 PCs may need this rate to be reduced to 57,600 bits/second.

Number

Enter your ISP's dial-in access modem number.

Modem speaker on

Select to turn on the modem speaker, if it has one.

Dialing mode

From the drop-down list, select the dialling mode used by your telephone

exchange.

Maximum retries

Accept the default number or enter a different number of failed dial attempts

before SmoothWall Express stops trying to connect.

After this number, SmoothWall Express will not try to dial again until you

click Dial on the Control > home page.

Note:

This number applies even if the Persistent connection option is enabled.

Idle timeout (mins; 0

to disable)

Determines the length of inactivity before SmoothWall Express drops the

connection when used in non-persistent connections.

The default is 15 minutes.

Set this option to zero (0), to disable it.

Note:

When disabled, you will have to disconnect and hang-up manually.

Persistent

connection

Select to enable SmoothWall Express to keep the link to your ISP up and

available for use all of the time – if the connection drops, it will automatically

be re-dialled.

31

SmoothWall Express

Installation Guide

Dial on Demand

Select to configure SmoothWall Express to automatically connect to the ISP

detailed in the current profile whenever a user on the network initiates a

connection to the Internet.

Note:

If dial on demand is enabled and your Internet connection is charged on

a per minute basis, you may get an unpleasant surprise when the next

telephone bill arrives!

Note:

You still have to click Connect on the Control > home page to start

SmoothWall Express.

Dial on Demand for

DNS

Select to configure SmoothWall Express to dial up to the Internet each time a

DNS request is made by any machine on the local network – this can happen

a lot when reading e-mail with embedded HTML, for example.

Note:

If not selected, SmoothWall Express will not dialup to the Internet each

time a DNS request is made, but only when a specific connection is

requested. This is one simple way to help reduce telephone charges

when the ISP connection is one that is paid for on a per minute basis.

Connect on

SmoothWall restart

Select to configure SmoothWall Express to automatically connect to the ISP

after being rebooted.

Automatic reboot if

connection down for

5 minutes

Select to configure SmoothWall Express to automatically reboot if the Red

interface is detected as being down for 5 minutes.

This option is primarily intended for users of Alcatel USB ADSL modems

which appear not to automatically reconnect in some circumstances.

Note:

This option cannot be used in conjunction with Dial on Demand.

ISP requires

Carriage Return

Select this option if your ISP requires that the modem send a carriage return to

signal it has finished sending.

Service name

For PPPoE connections, enter the name of the PPPoE service.

Concentrator name

For PPPoE connections, enter the name of the PPPoE concentrator.

Keep second

channel up

For ISDN connections, select this option to control the action of the second

data channel for high-speed, 128Kbit access.

If the data throughput keeps changing, this may cause the ISDN channel to go

up and down. Selecting this option will force the second channel to remain up,

instead of automatically closing once the data-rate decreases below a threshold

where the second channel is of no benefit.

Minimum time to

keep second

channel up (sec)

For ISDN connections, select this option to stop the second channel repeatedly

going up and down due to the threshold being exceeded for short periods of

time.

You can enter a higher value to force the second channel to stay up for longer,

so a momentary lull in the data traffic will not cause the second channel to go

down.

Username

Enter the username supplied by your ISP.

Setting

Information