Registration

After the reboot following installation, the system will prepare for registration. The first requirement is that the system date, time, and timezone be correctly set. You will be presented with the Set Date/Time/Timezone Screen (see Figure 3.1). This screen allows you to edit the date and time (which should be correct if your BIOS was set up correctly), and specify whether your BIOS clock is set to localtime or to UTC/GMT. To set the timezone, press F2. You will be asked to select a region. Move the cursor to your region, and press Enter. You will then be presented with a list of countries within the selected region. Move the cursor to your country and press Enter. If your country has multiple timezones, you may be presented with a third submenu, this time listing locales within your country. Select the appropriate locale and press Enter. Finally, you will be shown the selected timezone and asked to confirm its correctness. Once you have done this, you will be returned to the date and time screen. Make sure the time is still correct now that the timezone has changed, and press F8 to continue.

  

Figure 3.1: The Set Date/Time/Timezone Screen

Once the date and time have been set, the Registration Screen (Figure 3.2) will be displayed.

  

Figure 3.2: The Registration Screen

After the firewall has been registered, you will be able to re-enter the Registration Screen, should you need to, by running fwadmin with a -K argument.

This screen is used to enter some details about your company and the host on which you are installing the software. This information is required for registration, and changes to this information will require re-registration of your firewall.

The fields in the Registration Screen are:

Owner

The name of your company.

Contact Name

The name of the contact person at your company.

Contact Phone

The phone number of a contact person at your company.

Contact E-Mail

The e-mail address of the contact person.

Reseller

Who the firewall was purchased from.

Country

The country where the firewall is installed.

Hostname

The host name to use for the firewall.

Domain

Your Internet domain name.

Address

The external IP address of the firewall host machine. This must be the IP address that the firewall will use once it is deployed, and may be different from any temporary addresses used during installation or pre-configuration.

Product

The CEQURUX Technologies product you are registering.

Users

The number of users allowed for your licence.

Expiry Month

The month in which your registration expires.

Expiry Year

The year in which your registration expires.

Use the Tab key to move between these fields, and the cursor and backspace keys to edit them. The country, product, users, month and year fields can be changed by typing the first letter of your choice, and by using the the ` ' (space) or `+' and `-' keys. Section 4.1 contains further information about moving around screens and editing fields.

Once you have entered and checked the registration information, you have several options. You can cancel registration by pressing F1, perform an automated remote registration by pressing F2 (if that choice is available), perform a manual registration by pressing F3, or defer the registration process by pressing F8. If you want to use automated remote registration but the firewall's network interfaces are not yet configured, then you can defer registration, configure the network interfaces, and reboot the firewall. After the reboot, you should be able to use automated remote registration.

If you select automated remote registration, the firewall will attempt to obtain an activation key from a server on the Internet. This will not be possible if the firewall has no available network interfaces or if you are not connected to the Internet. Auto-registration is discussed in more detail below.

If you select manual or auto registration, a serialisation key will be generated for your copy of the firewall; this may take several minutes, depending on the speed of the machine. For manual registration, you will need to contact your vendor and provide them with the serialisation key; they can then give you an activation key which can be entered to complete the registration.

In the case of auto-registration, the information that you enter in the Registration Screen is communicated to CEQURUX Technologies' registration server. We collect this information to enable us to better serve our customers. This information is not sold or distributed to third parties.

The contact information will be used only for notifying you of important announcements, such as software updates due to bug fixes or closing of security vulnerabilities. It will not be used to send other unsolicited material.

  

Figure 3.3: The Activation Screen

The Activation Screen (Figure 3.3) displays the serialisation key for your firewall, and allows you to enter the activation key to complete your registration.

The available keys are:

F1

Cancel registration

F7

View help

F8

Save changes and complete registration

  

Figure 3.4: The Remote Registration Screen

The Remote Registration Screen (Figure 3.4) allows you to perform automated remote registration by communicating over the Internet with a registration server. It contains the following fields that are used to configure the firewall's access to the Internet during the remote registration process:

Local Interface

Which network interface to use. Usually the same as the external interface on the System Setup Screen.

Local IP Address

The numeric IP address to use. Usually the same as the external IP address on the System Setup Screen. This may be a temporary address that is different from the permanent external IP address specified on the Registration Screen.

Local IP Netmask

The netmask that is associated with the local IP address. Usually the same as the external netmask on the System Setup Screen.

Router/Gateway

The numeric IP address of your external router (or of your ISP's gateway if you are using SLIP or PPP). Usually the same as the Router/Gateway on the System Setup Screen.

Name Server

The numeric IP address of a domain name server. This should usually be a name server made available by your ISP.

The Remote Registration Screen contains the following fields that are used to contact the remote registration server:

Registration Server

The domain name or IP address of the remote registration server. The default is register.cequrux.com.

Port

The TCP port number used for the remote registration service. The default is 8888.

Confirm that the local and remote details are correct, and press F8 (Done). The firewall will then attempt to connect to the registration server and obtain a registration key. If this is successful, it will take you to the Registration Screen, where you will see the key fields already filled in. You should then press F8 (Done) in the Registration Screen to accept the keys.

The first time you use automated remote registration the firewall will obtain an evaluation key, which will be valid for approximately two months. While the firewall is using the evaluation key, patented encryption algorithms will be disabled (even if you live in a country where the patents are not applicable or enforceable). Most noticeably, SSH and SSL services (which use the RSA algorithm) will be disabled.

Before the evaluation period expires, you will need to ensure that your payment has been processed and that your registration information has been received by CEQURUX Technologies. (The web page http://www.cequrux.com/register/ has further details about this.) You will then be able to use automated remote registration a second time, to obtain a registration key that reflects the correct expiry date and country-based restrictions on cryptographic algorithms.