Hi all.

I want to create a VPN server using my Linux box that is running Lenny. I've googled and googled and tryed and tryed, and I havent been able to find something that will help me get it going. The server that I am running at the moment does not have a desktop installed as I don't need one. I access it through SSH.

So scenario that I have got and I want to incorperate is this:

I have a ADSL2 router that I want to port forward to my VPN server, and my VPN server has 1 physical NIC and a logical that I have pre-configured (Sub interface) thats on a different network. so this is what the IP configuration is:

192.168.0.1 (Router/Gateway)
192.168.0.254 (Linux Box/Proposed VPN server/eth1)
192.168.1.254 (Linux Box/Proposed VPN server/eth1:1)
192.168.1.253 (Windows Server that I can remote access to through the VPN)

I've looked at a few daemons that are available online for Linux. But I just can't figure out how to set it up properly. Perhaps someone who knows the best practices and pracedures when it comes to VPN with Linux that can pass there wisdom to me so I can note this down and keep it for later on. Thanks in Advance.

Matt.

Hi Matt,

You have two options.

From installation point easier, but harder to configure is the openvpn. It is part of the Debian distribution, just install with apt-get install openvpn. With openvpn, the authentication is based with keys, not with username and password, you have to create keys and share it with the clients. The advantage, you have client for Windows and Linux as well. disadvantage, you have to configure the client and the server as well, and you need the key for set up a new client. I don't say it is easy to configure, but you can find very good howtos on the Internet.

The easiest howto is: http://wiki.debian.org/HowTo/openvpn

You second option could be the PPTPD. This is what debian used in the past, they switched later to openvpn. It is a PPP based VPN, easy to configure, because use the same protocol what Windows use, if your client is Windows, you don't have to set up anything on client side, just set up a VPN network in windows. It uses username and password, easy to set up a new client. Configuration on the server side is not a big deal as well. I just set up one some days ago from source code, installation and configuration was 3 minutes, everything is well documented in the source code package, for debian configuration files are well prepared.

Good luck!

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for that! will do it when I get home today. Very excited now

Do you know any how tos for pptpd? I can't seem to get openvpn to budge

Okay I got pptpd working and I can access it over the internet, but when I try to do a remote desktop to my server running windows or anything like that. or connect to my vmware server homepage which is installed on my windows server, it the vpn connection disconnects :|

it also drops out when I connect to my samba server on my linux box as well.