vpn server software

[chef]

i want to setup a vpn to allow me to connect from laptop on a free wifi (i.e hotel etc.) to my main workhorse desktop at home, any suggestions of (ideally free) vpn server software to allow me to do this?

[doodab]

OpenVPN - Open Source VPN

Works a treat for me.

The computer running the server has to be switched on (this can be got around using wake on lan magic packets if need be) then I just fire up the client, connect to the remote machine and fire up remote desktop or VNC to get a desktop session.

[chef]

weirdly i found an old mail from you with exactly that recommendation, its installed Im now trying to work out how to ###k to configure it to run as a server when i connect it fails but that could well be because Ive not edited any config files in any way..

[doodab]

Yeah you do have to configure it.

When running as a server service (just go into services,msc and enable the service), you need to put a config file in the config subdirectory of the install directory, it will start a server listener for each file it finds with a name XXX.ovpn.

My config looks something like

mode p2p
secret test.key
dev tun
float 
ifconfig 192.168.5.1 192.168.5.2
proto udp
lport 8000

and the client looks something like

mode p2p
secret test.key
dev tun
remote a.b.c.d 8000
ifconfig 192.168.5.2 192.168.5.1
proto udp
nobind

Where a.b.c.d is the external address of my router and I have port forward set up from port 8000 to port 8000 on the desktop.

When connected this gives a network segment 192.168.5.x connecting the two machines, so then I can use remote desktop, browse via explorer and so on.

I will try and find the instructions for generating the test.key (which is a static encryption key). You can also use PKI and dynamically generated keys but I've not got around to setting that up.

Edit: openvpn -genkey seems to be the command to generate a static key file.

[ee61re]

If you need Remote Desktop capability, and simple file sharing / syncing - Microsoft Live Mesh will do it.

[VectraMan]

I was reading about OpenVPN the other day; looked quite good, and has a sensible (i.e. shared key) mode of operation rather than the overly complex insanity that is some types of VPN.

IIRC it uses UDP on a particular port which you need to make sure is forwarded from your router to the server (assuming typical NAT based router).