[TriLUG] Re: Linux VPNs

[Corey Mutter]

> Webmin has a module for configuring FreeS/WAN, I'm not sure it works, of
> the two machines I am trying to connect, one has ports 8000 and below
> blocked by the ISP.  This has complicated my setup and has kept me from
> successfully completing my connection...  If anyone has a workaround I
> would love to hear it!  I tried using iptables to redirect the ports
> before leaving machine1 and fixing them at machine2 but I think I may
> have missed some important ports, or the authentication does not like
> the changed packets, or it was just too late (or early, for that matter)
> and my brain was mush!

For the point-to-point setup, you could try the really basic PPP-over-SSH
VPN described here: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/VPN-HOWTO/index.html

I am using it successfully as the VPN for my wireless network.

The downside is that (as far as I know) it can't be made to work with
Windows clients. For your two-router tunnel, though, this may not be
an issue.

The basic idea is you get an SSH session running between the two
endpoints (you could easily move the server port number to get around
your ports <8000 restriction), then start a pppd on each end, using
the ssh session as the transport.

The client-side setup described in that document can be made easier:
You can simply use the "pty" option to "pppd" and tell it to use
"ssh other-router" as the pipeline. You need not use "pty-redir".

Corey

> If anyone has any ideas, I may re-visit this configuration...

> Thanks!

> --mwt