Windows VPN

[James McDonald]

Ben Duncan wrote:
> In Windows 2K /XP, "MY NETWORK" lets you set up a VPN
> as an alternatively Network Connection.
>
> Any Idea what Protcol that is how to do the
> same thing on a Linux Box?
>
> Thanks ...
>
>
>   
*This **pptp*client.sourceforge.net/* is the PPTP client for linux I use 
it to connect to my Windows based VPN server at work. PPTP is *Point to 
Point Tunneling Protocol. PPTP runs on port 1723 and also uses GRE 
(Generic Routing Encapsulation) Protocol number 47. I forward these two 
protocols to my internal VPN server from the linux firewall to give 
windows/linux clients access from outside my work network.

Incidently from windows you can also use L2TP (Layer 2 tunneling 
protocol) to create the VPN but this is a PITA because of needing to 
generate certs etc on the server/client.

I usually use Fedora but currently am on Ubuntu and the package names 
are pptp-linux and pptpconfig <== gui based configuration editor

Once you install the packages just run pptpconfig and it will add your 
credentials to the /etc/ppp/*secrets and when you click connect to build 
the tunnel for you. Remember to define routes to the networks behind the 
vpn server and open you firewall to allow the outgoing traffic.

I have recently installed OpenVPN it rocks and is flexible but I haven't 
used the windows clients for it in anger yet. I love that I can create a 
bridged interface from the internal lan to the vpn interface and have my 
clients "on the lan" with no further routing hassles.