Configuring General Portal Settings

There are two main options for configuring a portal:

• Modify an existing layout.

• Configure a new portal.

To configure the settings on the General tab for a new portal, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Portals > Portals page.

2. Click the Add Portal button or the configure button next to the portal you want to configure. The Add Portal or Edit Portal screen displays.

3. On the General tab, enter a descriptive name for the portal in the Portal Name field. This name will be part of the path of the SRA portal URL. For example, if your SRA portal is hosted at https://vpn.company.com, and you created a portal named “sales”, then users will be able to access the sub-site at https://vpn.company.com/portal/sales.

Note Only alphanumeric characters, hyphen (-), and underscore (_) are accepted in the Portal Name field. If other types of characters or spaces are entered, the portal name will be truncated before the first non-alphanumeric character.

4. Enter the title for the Web browser window in the Portal Site Title field.

5. To display a banner message to users before they login to the portal, enter the banner title text in the Portal Banner Title field.

6. Enter an HTML compliant message, or edit the default message in the Login Message field. This message is shown to users on the custom login page.

7. The Portal URL field is automatically populated based on your SRA appliance network address and Portal Name.

8. To enable visibility of your custom logo, message, and title information on the login page, select the Display custom login page check box.

Note Custom logos can only be added to existing portals. To add a custom logo to a new portal, first complete general portal configuration, then add a logo in the Adding a Custom Portal Logo.

9. Select the Enable HTTP meta tags for cache control check box to apply HTTP meta tag cache control directives to the portal. Cache control directives include:

<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="must-revalidate">

These directives help prevent clients browsers from caching SRA portal pages and other Web content.

Note Enabling HTTP meta tags is strongly recommended for security reasons and to prevent out-of-date Web pages, and data being stored in users’ Web browser cache.

10. Select the Enable ActiveX Web cache cleaner check box to load an ActiveX cache control when users log in to the SRA appliance. The Web cache cleaner will prompt the user to delete all session temporary Internet files, cookies and browser history when the user logs out or closes the Web browser window. The ActiveX Web cache control is ignored by Web browsers that don’t support ActiveX.

11. See Enforcing Login Uniqueness.

12. See Enforcing Client Source Uniqueness.

Enforcing Login Uniqueness

Login uniqueness, when enforced, restricts each account to a single session at a time. When login uniqueness is not enforced, each account can have multiple, simultaneous, sessions. To enforce login uniqueness, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Portals > Portals.

2. For an existing portal, click the configure icon next to the portal you want to configure. Or, for a new portal, click the Add Portal button.

3. Select the Enforce login uniqueness check box.

4. Click Accept.

Enforcing Client Source Uniqueness

Client source uniqueness, when enforced, prevents multiple connections from a user with the same client source address when connecting with a Dell SonicWALL client (NetExtender, Mobile Connect, Virtual Assist etc.). This prevents a user from consuming multiple licenses when a user reconnects after an unexpected network interruption.

For example, a user on an unreliable network is disconnected due to a network issue. If login uniqueness is NOT enabled, the user session on the appliance stays active for this type of disconnect until the timeout value is reached. The user reconnects and consumes a second license with the potential of consuming more licenses before the timeout disconnects them.

To enforce client source uniqueness, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Portals > Portals.

2. For an existing portal, click the configure icon next to the portal you want to configure. Or, for a new portal, click the Add Portal button.

3. Select the Enforce client source uniqueness check box.

4. Click Accept.

Configuring the Home Page

The home page is an optional starting page for the SRA appliance portal. The home page enables you to create a custom page that mobile users will see when they log into the portal. Because the home page can be customized, it provides the ideal way to communicate remote access instructions, support information, technical contact information or SRA-related updates to remote users.

The home page is well-suited as a starting page for restricted users. If mobile users or business partners are only permitted to access a few files or Web URLs, the home page can be customized to show only those links.

You can edit the title of the page, create a home page message that is displayed at the top of the page, show all applicable bookmarks (user, group, and global) for each user, and optionally upload an HTML file.

To configure the home page, perform the following tasks:

1. Navigate to the Portals > Portals page.

2. Click the Add Portal button or the configure button next to the portal you want to configure. The Add Portal or Edit Portal screen displays.

3. Click the Home Page tab.

Table 15The following table provides a description of the configurable options in the Home Page tab.

Table 15 Home Page Tab Fields

Field

Description

Display Home Page Message

Displays the customized home page message after a user successfully authenticates to the SRA appliance.

Allow NetExtender connections to this portal

If selected, activates the following two check box options. If not selected, NetExtender and Mobile Connect will not be available on the portal.

Display NetExtender

Displays the link to NetExtender, allowing users to install and invoke the clientless NetExtender virtual adapter.

Launch NetExtender after Login

Launches NetExtender automatically after a user successfully authenticates to the SRA appliance. See Enabling NetExtender to Launch Automatically in the User Portal.

Allow File Shares on this portal

If selected, activates the following two check box options. If not selected, File Shares will not be accessible from the portal.

Display File Shares portal button

Provide a button to link to the File Shares (Windows CIFS/SMB) Web interface so that authenticated SRA users may use NT file shares according to their domain permissions. See File Sharing Using “Applet as Default”

Use Applet for portal button

Enables the Java File Shares Applet, giving users a simple yet powerful file browsing interface with drag-and-drop, multiple file selection and contextual click capabilities.

Display Bookmark Table

If selected, activates the following two check box options. If not selected, Bookmarks will not be available from the portal.

Show “All Bookmarks” tab

Displays the tab containing administrator-provided bookmarks and allows users to define their own bookmarks to network resources.

Show default tabs (Desktop, Web, Files, Terminal)

Displays the default bookmark tabs.

Display Import Certificate Button

Displays a button that allows users to permanently import the SSL security certificate. Certificate import is only available for Internet Explorer on Windows 2000 and XP.

Show Dell SonicWALL copyright footer

Displays Dell SonicWALL copyright footer on portal. If unchecked, the footer is not shown.

Show “Tips/Help” sidebar

Displays a sidebar in the portal with tips and help links. This option is not available when the Legacy Look & Feel check box is selected on the General tab.

Home Page Message

Optional text that can be displayed on the home page after successful user authentication.

Note When creating a File Share, do not configure a Distributed File System (DFS) server on a Windows Domain Root system. Because the Domain Root allows access only to Windows computers in the domain, doing so will disable access to the DFS file shares from other domains. The SRA appliance is not a domain member and will not be able to connect to the DFS shares. DFS file shares on a stand-alone root are not affected by this Microsoft restriction.
Some ActiveX applications, such as the ActiveX Terminal Services RDP client, will only work when connecting to a server with a certificate from a trusted root authority. If you are using the test SSL certificate that is included with the SRA appliance, then you can select the Display Import self-signed certificate links check box to allow Windows users to easily import a self-signed certificate.
It is strongly recommended that you upload a valid SSL certificate from a trusted root authority such as Verisign or Thawte. If you have a valid SSL certificate, do not select the Display Import self-signed certificate links check box.

5. Click Accept to update the home page content.

Enabling NetExtender to Launch Automatically in the User Portal

NetExtender can be configured to start automatically when a user logs into the user portal. You can also configure whether or not NetExtender is displayed on a Virtual Office portal. To configure NetExtender portal options, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Portals > Portals

2. Click the Add Portal button or the configure button next to the portal you want to configure. The Add Portal or Edit Portal screen displays.

3. Click the Home Page tab.

4. To prevent users from accessing NetExtender through this portal, clear the Allow NetExtender connections to this portal check box. Since Mobile Connect acts as a NetExtender client when connecting, clearing this check box will also prevent Mobile Connect users on this portal.

5. To launch NetExtender automatically when users login to the portal, select the Launch NetExtender after login check box.

6. Click Accept.

File Sharing Using “Applet as Default”

The Java File Shares Applet option provides users with additional functionality not available in standard HTML-based file sharing, including:

• Overwriting of existing files

• Uploading directories

• Drag-and-drop capability

• Multiple file selection

• Contextual click capability

• Sortable file listings

• Ability to navigate directly to folders by entering path

• Back and forward buttons with a drop-down history menu

• Properties window displays folder size

To use the Java File Shares Applet on this portal, perform the following tasks:

1. Navigate to Portals > Portals.

2. Click the Add Portal button or the configure button next to the portal you want to configure. The Add Portal or Edit Portal screen displays.

3. Click the Home Page tab.

4. Select the Display File Shares portal button check box.

5. Select the Use Applet for portal button check box.

6. Click Accept to save changes.