Setup VPN without tun/tap on linux fedora 10 VPS

newyorkpride · 06-12-2009, 02:26 AM

Hi, I have a VPS and spent a good hour or two trying to setup openVPN on it and troubleshooting untill I found out that the problems were because the tun/tap module isnt installed. I asked for it to be installed but they told me it is only available for dedicated servers.

My question is, is it still possible to somehow create a VPN that I can connect to this server, without tun/tap. I have fedora core 10. Thanks in adcance!

billymayday · 06-12-2009, 02:44 AM

You can create a "poor man's VPN" using ssh. I haven't done it myself, but a quick google should get you a good many results.

newyorkpride · 06-12-2009, 03:18 AM

Just looked it up and tried it myself. Its interesting but doesnt really help. It just seems like another way to use the server as a proxy, thats what I setup squid for though. I need something that acts a vpn.... in other words have my whole computer internet connection go thru it, not just firefox or explorer.

billymayday · 06-12-2009, 03:41 AM

You can do it, but it looks like you still need a tun interface, so I guess it doesn't help a lot

Following is from man ssh:

Code:

SSH-BASED VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS
     ssh contains support for Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnelling using the tun(4) network pseudo-device, allowing two
     networks to be joined securely.  The sshd_config(5) configuration option PermitTunnel controls whether the server sup-
     ports this, and at what level (layer 2 or 3 traffic).

     The following example would connect client network 10.0.50.0/24 with remote network 10.0.99.0/24, provided that the SSH
     server running on the gateway to the remote network, at 192.168.1.15, allows it:

           # ssh -f -w 0:1 192.168.1.15 true
           # ifconfig tun0 10.0.50.1 10.0.99.1 netmask 255.255.255.252

     Client access may be more finely tuned via the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file (see below) and the PermitRootLogin server
     option.  The following entry would permit connections on the first tun(4) device from user ``jane'' and on the second
     device from user ``john'', if PermitRootLogin is set to ``forced-commands-only'':

       tunnel="1",command="sh /etc/netstart tun1" ssh-rsa ... jane
       tunnel="2",command="sh /etc/netstart tun1" ssh-rsa ... john

     Since a SSH-based setup entails a fair amount of overhead, it may be more suited to temporary setups, such as for wire-
     less VPNs.  More permanent VPNs are better provided by tools such as ipsecctl(8) and isakmpd(8).

newyorkpride · 06-12-2009, 01:43 PM

Yea I need something without tun/tap