Thursday, May 27, 2010

Firebox x10 user count exceeded error

On adding a couple of new devices behind my firebox firewall I recieved the most unhelpfull message "user count exceeded".  I double checked everything and after many weeks of fighting with the issue I finally found the solution.

What the error message means is that there is a licensed limit (based on the key you've purchased) for the number of IP addresses on the local network that can use the firewall to access the external interface.  The error message most un-helpfully calls these IP Addresses "users".

So where you have upgraded a number of machines, changed the IP addresses, and the odd printer has chatted to the internet all these old IP addresses are stored on the Firebox.  These then block any new ones for new devices and have to be manually removed.

To do this open the Firebox System Manager ->Authentication Tab->IP Address button

This will give all the addresses that the Firebox has remembered for you as having access to the external interface.

Either clear them all to start a new list or remove the ones you don't want!


This link eventually told me what I needed to know.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting the comment. I ran into the issue on my FB 20W.

Anonymous said...

Thanks - This pointed me in the right direction. Knowing they mean IP addresses instead of USERS made me realize that there was a limit on the Feature Key since I hadnt Activated yet with Watchguard

Anonymous said...

Another word of thanks. You came up on my google search and this put me in the right direction. As someone new to watchguard administration the information was very helpful.

Anonymous said...

Yes, product Activation is the solution!
Meanwhile, up to now, September 2012, WatchGuard keeps showing the same confusing message...

Unknown said...

I had this issue occur with a client even though their feature key showed as unlimited for internal ip to external access. In this case simply rebooting the Watchguard cleared things up.