[plug] VPNs

[Bernard Blackham]

On Thu, Aug 05, 2004 at 06:06:50PM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote:
> Craig Ringer wrote:
> > For example, it may be reasonable to simply use SSH/SCP (there are GUIs 
> > for SCP), you might get away with simple HTTP + client certificates 
> > (note: WebDAV runs over HTTP), or you might need a full ip-level VPN 
> > like L2TP or IPSec.
> 
> UWA use a PPTP-based VPN for making wireless access vaguely
> secure.  The server runs on Linux, there are Linux clients around,
> and I believe the configuration needed for modern versions of
> Windows to be used as a client is next to trivial.

On a fresh install of Windows >= 2000, yes it's trivial :)

> Perhaps someone in the know from UWA could elaborate on how reliable
> this system is and what degree of pain is involved in making it go.

For a basic system, not _tooo_ much. In Debian speak:

apt-get install ppp pptpd kernel-patch-mppe

You need the mppe kernel patches for some semblance of encryption
(which involves either recompiling your kernel, or use the kernelmod
package to build & load the module without rebooting :)

Add some users to /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and route the relevant IP
ranges from /etc/pptpd.conf, and stuff just generally works.

Bernard.

-- 
 Bernard Blackham <bernard at blackham dot com dot au>