From UntangleWiki

All Untangle® FAQs

Is Untangle for Home or Business Use?

Untangle is great for businesses and small home office networks. However, Untangle does require its own dedicated server. Untangle takes over the computer that it is installed on so it is not a good fit for home where an extra computer is not available. Click here.

What is the Untangle Platform?

Untangle is a platform for deploying network based applications. The platform unites these applications around a common GUI, database and reporting. Applications on the Untangle platform inspect network traffic simultaneously, which greatly reduces the resource requirements of each individual application. The Untangle platform currently supports many open source applications and commercial add-ons.

Who is Untangle?

Untangle is changing the way small businesses get the information technology they need. Untangle’s solutions today – which focus on network security, safe messaging, and control of web usage – enable businesses with fewer than 300 employees to “untangle” their IT infrastructure. Future Untangle solutions will continue to innovate on network security and control, and will also expand into adjacent areas that increase business productivity. Untangle is based in San Mateo, California, and are backed by venture capital firms CMEA Ventures and Rustic Canyon Partners.

Can I install Untangle on a single computer to use as Parental Control software?

No. You cannot install Untangle on a single computer to use as Parental Control software. Installing Untangle will wipe out your existing operating system and all files on your hard drive. It can only be used as a Gateway to implement Parental Control or Web Filtering on connected client computer(s).

For a single PC, other Internet filter/Parental Control software can be used.

What are Untangle’s hardware requirements?

They are as follows:

• Untangle's recommended configurations
• Untangle’s verified configurations

Is Untangle for Desktops or Servers?

The most common way to install Untangle is on a dedicated server. Transitioning a desktop machine into an Untangle server is easy and inexpensive. However, upon installation, Untangle will erase the previous operating system and applications in order to take over the computer.

If you do not have a dedicate server available you can run Untangle for Windows.

Where does Untangle sit on the network?

Untangle sits at the network gateway in between the local area network (LAN) and the Internet. Untangle can be configured to in two ways:

1. Transparent bridge mode to work with an existing router or firewall
2. Untangle can be configured to act as a router and firewall itself

Does Untangle use open source software?

Yes, Untangle uses several open source projects. Untangle seeks to offer the best technology in each of its modules, whether or not that requires writing proprietary code or working with existing open source projects to combine the best features from multiple projects, add missing features or simply optimizing them for the Untangle platform. The Untangle platform itself is a proprietary technology that was developed internally.

Is Untangle hardware or software?

Untangle is a software platform that can be installed on standard Intel-compatible hardware. Minimum hardware requirements can be found here. Many Untangle partners offer a pre-built systems for organizations that prefer the convenience of an appliance.

How does Untangle define users for licensing purposes?

A user is defined as a PC on the network. If multiple people use the same PC, it still counts as one user.

Is the product ad supported?

Untangle may display ads on block pages on the free version of Untangle. No ads will be displayed if an Untangle server has at least one paid subscription.

Who owns my network data?

You own 100% of your network data. Untangle does not have access to your Untangle server or your network (unless you explicitly authorize us by turning on remote support access in config->system)

Is my network data private?

Your network data is 100% private and only viewable by administrators with login credentials.