After the installation, go to the Windows [Start] menu, click [Program/Active Wall/Start Service] to start this program. Active Wall tray icon will appear in the task bar:
The other way to lunch Active Wall is to enter "net start activewall" in the command line.
 Tip: the software is running as a service named "Active Wall" in Windows OS. And it is set to be launched automatically by default when the operating system is started. |
Double-click the <Active Wall> tray icon in the task bar, the login dialog will be displayed.
Enter the username, password and press <Login> to authenticate. Only accountants authenticated successfully can enter the administration pages.
| Tip: Because the default account "admin" has no password set, please modify the password after the first successful login when using "admin". |
The software automatically monitors the system after starting. When you want to pause monitoring, click the menu [System/Stop service] or press the button [Stop service]
. When restarting the monitoring, click menu [System/Start service] or press the button [Start service]
.
When the user finishes the operation, the user should log out of the software by clicking the menu [System/Log Out]. After the user logs out, the program does not exit but goes into the task bar..
The administrator password can be modified. Click the menu [System/Change Password], enter a new password into the popup dialog [Change Password]
Click the menu [System/Exit System] to exit the program. Or click [Program/Active Wall/Stop Active Wall] in the Windows start menu. Or execute a command line "net stop activewall" to exit.
<Active Wall> identifies each computer in LAN by a unique IP address. It can find the online computers automatically and log all the sent and received data, which will be viewed in the computer list. If the user selects [Auto Find], the software will detect all new computers' MAC addresses and computer names, and add them into "Default" group. Here are the icons which show the computer online status:
Online and sending data
Online but sending no data
Offline, or can not be detected any data transferring in a defined time
Click the menu [Computer/New Computer]. Or right click in the computer list and select [New Computer] in the popup menu. Enter the information of a new computer, and then press <OK>.
In the computer list, select a computer and click the menu [Computer/Computer Property]. Or right click the computer icon in the computer list and select [Computer Property] in the popup menu. Modify the information of the computer, and then press <OK>.
In the computer list, select a computer and click the menu [Computer/Delete Computer]. Or right click the computer icon in the computer list and select [Delete Computer] in the popup menu. You can multi-select more computers in order to delete them at one time.
<Active Wall> can do data transferring statistics for each computer in LAN. It also supports a timer of exporting data.
You can choose to display the following items in the computer list, including IP address, MAC address, computer name, send speed, receive speed, total speed, send byte, receive byte, total byte, send packet, receive packet, total packet and deny packet.
To configure the data items in the computer list, click the menu [Computer/View Data], and select the data items in the popup dialog, then press <OK>.
Export data: Press <Export Now>, fill up a file name then press <Save>. All the current data statistics will be exported into files in hard disk used to analyze later.
Reset data: Press <Reset Now> to clear all the current data statistics.
Daily export: Check [Daily export], fill up a time then press <OK>. After this setting, the system will export the data statistics at the defined time everyday. The default directory for exporting data is the "Report" directory.
Daily reset: Check [Daily reset], fill up a time then press <OK>. After this setting, the system will reset the data statistics at the defined time everyday.
| Tip: The exported data statistics represents the current data statistics, which means the same to the data displayed in the computer list. It is recommended that both [Daily export] and [Daily reset] are checked if the user wants to do everyday statistics. What's more, the software will reset the statistics after restarting. |
You can define a range to be scanned. The result of the computers found will be added into "Default" group automatically. Click the menu [Computers/Scan Network]. Or right click in the computer list and select the menu [Scan Network] in the popup menu. Enter the IP address range, and then press <Start>.
The "Scan network" function can find the computers in the same network range, including the new computer's MAC address and computer name. If it finds a new IP, it will add it into the group "Default".
| Tip: "Scan Network" only scans the IP addresses in the same subnet. Therefore, it is recommended that "Auto Find" is enabled in case that the system gains a higher speed. |
When [Auto Find] is enabled, the system can automatically detect the network activity, finds new computers and adds them into the group "Default". Click the menu [Computers/Auto Find]. Or right click in the computer list and select the item [Auto Find] in the popup menu. Then the menu item will be checked by a right mark which means the function is enabled. Otherwise, none means disabled. It is demonstrated as follows:
Once you enable the auto find function, new computers in the network will be found and their IP addresses, MAC addresses, computer names will be added into the group "Default" automatically. This operation is equal to the function [Config/Setting Option/Auto find computer].
| Tip: After a successful installation, the [Auto Find] function is enabled by default. |
Computer groups are used to manage each computer. The administrator can configure various monitoring policies on various groups. When selecting a defined group in the group list, the computer list will display all the computers in that group.
After a successful installation, the system will create a "Default" group, which cannot be modified or deleted by anyone. All the computers found or detected by the scanner will be added into the "Default" group. When you want to modify the group property of a computer, just drag the computer icon into a new group and drop it.
| Tip: The "Default" group includes not only the computers already defined, but also the computers unknown or not displayed. So the computers unknown will be affected by default policies in the network activity. |
Click the menu [Group/New Group]. Or right click in the group list and select the menu [New Group] in the popup menu. Enter a group name, and then press <OK>.
Select the group which you want to modify and click the menu [Group/Group Property]. Or right click in the group list and select the menu item [Group Property] in the popup menu. Enter a new group name, and then press <OK>.
Select the group which you want to delete and click the menu [Group/Delete Group]. Or right click in the group list and select the menu item [Delete Group] in the popup menu.
| Tip: Once a group is deleted, the computers in the group will be moved into the "Default" group. However the "Default" group can not be deleted by anyone. |
<Active Wall> allows the administrator to set a time period when each rule will be applied. These time ranges are actually groups that can consist of any number of various intervals and single actions.
Select the group which you want to add a new time range and click the menu [Group/New Time Range]. Or right click the group list and select the menu item [New Time Range]. Enter a time range, and then press <OK>.
| Tip: A new time range will inherit the group policies once it's been created. |
Select a time range which you want to modify in the group list and click the menu [Group/Time Range Property]. Or right click the group list and select the menu item [Time Range Property]. Enter a new time range, and then press <OK>.
Select a time range which you want to delete in the group list and click the menu [Group/Delete Time Range]. Or right click the group list and select the menu item [Delete Time Range].
Select a group or a time range which you want to import a policy and click the menu [Group/Import Policy]. Or you can right click the group list and select the menu item [Import Policy]. Select a policy, and then press <Open>.
| Tip: The new policies imported will be added into the end of the group policies. The administrator may need to configure each module and adapt a new order of the policies in order to use them. For more policies, please visit the Active Wall site. |
Select a group or a time range which you want to export a policy and click the menu [Group/Export Policy]. Or right click the group list and select the menu item [Export Policy]. Enter a new policy name, and then press <Save>.
Select a group or a time range which you want to clear a policy and click the menu [Group/Clear Policy]. Or right click the group list and select the menu item [Clear Policy].
 Note: [Clear Policy] will delete all the policies of the group/time range, and the group/time range returns to an initial state without any policies. |
<Active Wall> provides 4 kinds of work mode to configure, including Gateway mode, Bridge mode, Passby mode and Single mode. Select a proper mode according to the current network connection (for details, please refer to [Network environments]). Click the menu [Config/Select Adapter]. Select a proper working mode in the popup dialog [Select Adapter]. Select an adapter connected to LAN in the [MAC] list and fill in [Subnet] and [Mask]. If no LAN scope is specified, the application will detect the IP address range automatically. Finally press <OK>.
| Note: The work mode must match the current network environment. If the adapter which is used is not in LAN, the program may corrupt. |
<Active Wall> provides several options to set the running program state. Click [Config/Setting Option], a dialog shows as follows:
Option instruction:
4.12.1. Auto start with Windows
With this option checked, <Active Wall> will start running with the Windows OS (without user authentication). Without this option checked, the administrator has to start <Active Wall> manually.
4.12.2. Enable active redirect on passby mode
This option only works in the passby mode. Limited in the network topology, the passby mode may not work completely. With this option checked, the ARP spoofing function is enabled to redirect the data packets transferring in other computers in LAN. Without this option checked, no data packets will be redirected. It is recommended that the ARP spoofing function is used only in small-sized LAN, for the reason that this function does some impacts on performance of the whole network.
4.12.3. Auto find computer
This option equals the menu [Auto Find]. With this option checked, <Active Wall> detects new computers automatically and adds them into the "Default" group. Without this option checked, new computers will not be added into the "Default" group, but still be affected by the "Default" group policies.
4.12.4. Computer idle detect
The administrator can adjust this option in order to detect the computer idle time interval. When <Active Wall> can not detect any data packets transportation in a computer in the defined time interval, this computer will be regarded as offline.
4.12.5. Max log in screen
The administrator can adjust this option in order to display the lines in the log on the computer screen. <Active Wall> will rotate to show the newest events. When the log accumulates to a number, the oldest events will be removed from the list displayed.
<Active Wall> provides all functions in the way of Plug-ins. The administrator can load or unload some of the Plug-ins. Click the menu [Plugin List], it shows a dialog as below:
The Plug-in is loaded when it is checked, otherwise it is unloaded. The sequence of all the Plug-in modules means the sequence of all the filters which work in the program.
It is recommended that only the required modules be loaded in order to speed up the filtering performance. All the modules which are not required should be unloaded. Also the software provides an optimized sequence after a successful installation.
Select a Plug-in module and press <Config>. Or double click the Plug-in to pop up a configuration dialog. After configuration, press <OK>. The Plug-in module works immediately.