VPN solution

From: peak man (none_at_none.com)
Date: 07/29/04

  • Next message: Charlie: "Re: REPOST: Screw Linux, I'm going back to Windows!" 
    Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:02:17 +0000 (UTC)

    Can anybody help me sort out a VPN solution? I administrate a small
    network of around 30 computers. Half the machines are behind a NAT
    firewall and half have static IPs addigned to us by our ISP (for various
    reasons I won't go into).

    The main SMB fileserver is behind the firewall but I need a way for people
    to access it from home. So far I've figured a number of solutions:

    1) FreeSwan/OpenSwan. Too complicated and involved for what is a very
    small network. For example, it seems to require DNS registration for our
    subnet before it can be used. I also struggle to understand much of the
    terminology.

    2) PPTP via PopTop. I set this up successfully today but to encrypt data
    transfer with Windows clients, you need a special mppe kernel module. This
    has to be built against your current kernel so an automatic kernel update
    will break it (ie via yum). I don't fancy having to rebuild the module
    each time a new kernel is released (I use RPM package management on
    RH9/FC1 machines for my servers).

    3) Simply putting the Samba server onto the Internet with a static IP. The
    data transfers won't be encrypted but the user authentication is. Trouble
    is that this could mean the entire fileserver is compromised should there
    be a bug in Samba.

    4) A special machine that mounts the SMB server and provides outside
    access via its own SMB server. This means that if it gets compromised, all
    they can do is trash an otherwise empty machine (although I suppose
    they'll still be able to wipe files on the SMB mount).

    Any ideas?

  • Next message: Charlie: "Re: REPOST: Screw Linux, I'm going back to Windows!"

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