Frequently Asked Questions - SurfPass 4

Where to find the pdf user's manual?

After the archive download

The archive is a self-extractible file. After decompression, the user manual is located in the "doc" sub-directory of the decompression folder.

When SurfPass is already installed

The user manual is located in the folder c:\program files\cogilab\SurfPass4\doc.

Install / uninstall

Impossible to launch the administration console of SurfPass (Windows error)

Check that the framework .Net v2 or above is installed on the administration computer. If it is not the case, you can install it from Windows Update / Optional updates, or from the links given at the download page, or from the SurfPass cd-rom. The framework .Net v3 is already present with Windows Vista and Windows 2008 server.

The clients cannot get connected to the sever

Check that the server address in the configuration account of the clients is correct, and that TCP ports 3050 and 5030 are open on the server if a firewall is active.

Conflict with antivirus / viruses / spyware

The anti-viruse must be deactivated or uninstalled. No anti-virus should be active during the install and the uninstall of SurfPass. At the install /uninstall time, an anti-virus could freeze some SurfPass modules, which could make Windows unstable and block the network. Example of problems caused by an antivirus not deactivated such as for example that from Computer Associates:
- At the installation time: filtering is completely inoperative, SurfPass is not present in the list of the applications of Windows. In this case to uninstall by the command line explained in the manual, then to reinstall it after the Windows reboot.
- At the uninstall time: the access to Internet remains blocked after the removing of SurfPass. In command line under a Windows administrator account to enter: netsh winsock reset <enter>

Error "SurfPass is already installed on this computer" during re-install

Uninstall the previous version and reboot the computer before installing / re-installing.

The language of SurfPass is not the expected one

There is only one version of SurfPass. If SurfPass is installed on a French version of Windows, it will run in French, in all other cases SurfPass will run in English.

Configuration

How to enter in the administrator mode the first time?

Enter "admin" in the login field and "cogilab" in the password field.

When changed settings are they taken into account?

The changes of parameters are taken into account after validation of the form by the green button "Validate" in the upper right, and in the forthcoming opening of a SurfPass user session (just press the button disconnect and then connect in the client identification dialog box to open a new session, leaving the fields name and password blank if sync with the Windows account).

What are the differences between user profile and computer profile?

The computer profile is used when SurfPass is in idle mode, the user profile is used when a SurfPass user session is open. Only one is active at the same time.

Manual or automatic user identification

SurfPass offers two types of user identification: automatic or manual.
- In automatic mode (default mode at the installation) SurfPass uses the owner’s name of the current Windows session as SurfPass username. The SurfPass session begins at the same time that the opening of the Windows session. This is the mode to use when Windows users are connected to an Active Directory server. This method has the advantage of being transparent to the users and to avoid the double creation of accounts in SurfPass and Active Directory for the administrator.
- The manual mode requires users to enter their name and password in a window of identification to start a SurfPass session. This is the way to choose when there is no Active Directory server and possibly for public access to the Internet, such as libraries.
The tab "Computers profiles" / "generic" / "General" contains the parameters for the mode of identification. If the "identification with Winlogon" option is checked, identification is automatic, if not it is done manually. In the latter case, it is advisable to check the option "Always display identification box in idle" in display options. Changes must be validated with the green button "Apply" in the upper right. The change will take effect after the reopening of a user session.
In automatic mode, SurfPass automatically creates users when they get connected for the first time. The choice of the user group, and hence the user profile determining the rights is done as follows: SurfPass tries to find a correspondence between an Active Directory group and a SurfPass users group. In case of failure, SurfPass uses a default users group.

How to change the administrator's password? (and others)

Enter in administrator mode, "Users" tab. Select the user account, then over-write the old password with a new one.

Filtering

Filtering level too high / too low: the level of the content filtering can be modified in each user user profile, "Filtering" tab. It is recommended to fit the level to the age of users, for example 8-10 for children, 4-7 for teenagers, 1-3 for adults. It is also possible to completely bypass the filtering by moving some users in the user group "Unlimited - Not filtered".
Blacklist: tab "Global" / "Filtering lists" / "Lists editing". By default sites making available videos such as youtube or dailymotion are blocked because of their sometimes inappropriate contents and the large bandwidth they use. These sites are present in the lists Toulouse.Audio-Video.domains and Toulouse.Filehosting.domains. To disable a list, just select it on the left, then check the option "List deactivated" on the right and finally validate with the green button "Apply" in the upper right. The disabled lists appear on a gray background to the left. The change will take effect after the reopening of a user session.
If filtering or blocking does not work, check if the Internet access passes through a proxy. If it is the case, it is necessary to edit the corresponding station profile, tab "Proxy", and to add an HTTP entry with the proxy parameters. If the configuration is correct, the log of the visited sites is coherent. If not, it is always the address of the proxy which is instead displayed.
Difference between domain and URL filtering: Domain is dedicated to a whole domain, for instance cogilab.com. URL means only one Web page such as cogilab.com/index.htm.
Domain name : the name may or may not be starting with www. It is recommended to enter domain.com instead of www.domain.com, such as cogilab.com.
How to prevent downloads: SurfPass filters by TCP/IP port. You can block the corresponding port, 21 for FTP. To prevent files downloading, you can add filtering rules like this: full site, denied, with address such as *.mp3, or *.zip, *.exe.
Filtering by TCP/UDP ports: For applications like chat or instant messaging, it is possible to block at the same time the port and the application. Many ports are predefined in the list, but it is also possible to enter directly the port number.
If you wish to authorize a site blocked by a black list, you have to add an authorization rule for this site with a priority of medium or above in the "Filtering" tab in the corresponding user profile. The same for authorizing a site blocked by the content analysis.

Timetable

To completely prohibit the access to certain hours, you just have to add corresponding prohibition time slots . It is not necessary to add ranges when the access is not completely prohibited; it is the behavior by default.
Crossing midnight: If a time slot starts before midnight and finishes afterwards, it should be broken up into two. A first range finishes at 23h59 and the following one starts at 00h00.

Use

The "Connect" button is always grayed

Conflict with other programs (antivirus, viruses, spyware, Web accelerator, proxy client...)

The dialog box of SurfPass is not displayed after rebooting the computer

See previous §.

Impossible to reach a Web site

Blank page or proxy error: See Proxy/Filtering configuration.

The filtering doesn't work

Are you sure to test with the same user profile?
If you use a black list, did you push the "Import" button after the selection of the black list file?
See § Configuration / Filtering.

SurfPass automatically disconnects a user at the end of a certain time

If the automatic disconnection is not wished, you just have to not select this option in the user profile.

The access to Internet is authorized permanently without a SurfPass user connected to

See § configuration / filtering. Maybe the filtering in the computer profile is not correctly configured.