Help Setting up a VPN

[Scootin159]

Here's the basic goal:

I want to access my home network from work


Here's what I have at home:
- A cable modem connection
- A linksys wireless router (WLAN, DHCP, Firewall)
- An unassigned pc/server (VPN?)

Also:
- A windows 2003 Server (DC, DNS, File Server, Print Server)
- A Linux server (WWW)
- A few WinXP clients

How do I set this up best to offer VPN capabilities? Can I just put two NIC's in the leftover PC and make it a VPN server? If so, how do I do this with the PC behind the firewall? I'd like to keep it behind the firewall as I don't want the rest of the network to go down if the VPN server goes down, is this possible?

If I make both NIC's connect to the router, will I be able to make it work with one port being inside the VPN the other outside, i.e.: Router -> Hub -> NIC1 -> VPN -> NIC2 -> Hub ?

 

[JackMDS]

Option One (The hard one).

Configure your Home Windows 2003 as a VPN Server.

Option Two (Fast and Easy).

Put the VPN on ice and try this: Ultr@VNC is a Free Comprehensive Solution, it provides: Remote Control, File Transfer, and Chat between LAN computers or over the Internet. Takes only few minutes to set it up.

Link to: Ultr@VNC (Remote Control for y...allation, and Settings

:sun:

 

[Scootin159]

hmm...I really like VPN for it's ability to give me full access to my network from away. Would I be able to use Ultr@VNC to connet to an exchange server (securly) through the internet?

 

[JackMDS]

Yeah it can be secured Read the content of the link Ulr@VNC has an Encryption Module.

It takes 20 minutes to set it up. You can have VNC and VPN together on the same system and it is Free so there is Nothing to lose but Fear.

:sun:

 

[groovin]

i always recommend the m0n0wall project for those that want a great opensource firewall/vpn/dhcp box. simple summary, it runs on any pc... boots off a cd and stores its config file in an xml file stored on floppy, or you can use the CF card version. m0n0 is basically a stripped down freebsd install on cd/cf with a great management gui. you can run this as your firewall/vpn/dhcp at home and just use your linksys for the wifi. one problem, dynamic ip support isnt great... a m0n0 w/ static IP does not talk well with a m0n0 w/dynamic ip. so, you can do one of these:

- use a static ip at home if available
- you can try using a vpn client for windows (or unix, whatever u run at home) like safenet.
- use windows ipsec , but this is a pain, you can use MS pptp, but its not as secure as ipsec.

www.m0n0.ch/wall

 

[Scootin159]

Thanks for your help guys, but I did finnally get VPN setup on windows. It's actually pretty easy once I figured out how to do it. I'm pretty surprised, there aren't any guides on how to setup a simple VPN server.