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How do you tunnel?

UrQuanLord88UrQuanLord88 Registered User regular
edited March 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
I've tried to Google this but I lose focus after the 10th offer to purchase a VPN service. Basically, I have a server and I want to do some tunneling (hopefully) without paying for a service. Is this possible?

As far as I can tell, all I need to do is to set up a VPN server, install some sort of client for connection (or just configure my browser), then I'm set. The problem I have is the part where I set up a server. Halp?

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Posts

  • punkpunk Professional Network Nerd Phoenix, AZRegistered User regular
    There are two types of VPN: static and dynamic. A static VPN is a persistent connection established between two fixed end-points. A dynamic VPN is between a software client and a fixed end-point. They can be called by different names, but that's the basic concept of it. For a software end-point, you're looking at a client like Cisco's AnyConnect. A fixed end-point could be a server, but more often they are firewalls or routers at the edge of a network.

    Do you want a VPN connection that you have to "dial-in" to each time, or do you want a persistent, always-on connection that you don't have to worry about? That will affect the kind of hardware/software you need to look at.

  • UrQuanLord88UrQuanLord88 Registered User regular
    Thanks for breaking it down for me. Is there any other significant difference between static/dynamic VPN? Otherwise, I doubt that I would require a persistent connection.

    How do I go about doing such a thing? Can you recommend any (free) software/website that I can look at?

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  • RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    If you were to setup a m0n0wall firewall to replace your existing firewalls at both sites, or just do the one at the server's site, then you could probably use something like viscosity as the client software.

  • punkpunk Professional Network Nerd Phoenix, AZRegistered User regular
    edited April 2012
    m0n0wall is nice, and it seems like Viscosity is a decent client.

    Unfortunately, I haven't ventured too much into SOHO VPN setups since I dabbled with a WatchGuard firewall and their dynamic VPN client what seems like forever ago. I usually only deal with Cisco hardware and their AnyConnect client, and they aren't cheap. Or simple.

    Viscosity has a nice Introduction to VPN article you may want to read.

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