OK, I am a BIG LAN gamer and me and a buddy of mine plan on using a VPN tunnel to join our networks together. We both have spare machines that can be dedicated VPN gateway and nodes. The question is, how to use them?
My network setup is rather large right now, but very simple. My DSL modem goes directly to a Smoothwall dedicated firewall, which then goes to a 16-port Linksys switch (10 ports being used). I have one old machine I am willing to dedicate to be a VPN Gateway. My question is, does anyone know of any free (linux based) VPN gateway and endpoint software? And if so, can the gateway be on the green (local) side of the firewall and can the endpoint be a vpn gateway, also in the green zone of the other network? I have plenty of time to play around with the software, but I just need the right software. If I had the money, I'd buy 2 licenses to Smoothwall Corporate and buy the SmoothTunnel and SmoothNode modules. This is exactly what I want, but I would be able to use my existing firewall to do it. My current version of Smoothwall (the free open source edition) has the option to allow VPN connections to connect to a server within the network I've noticed.
Here is a perfect example of what I am trying to do
http://www.smoothwall.net/products/smoothnode4/
The Smoothwall Firewall is also my internet gateway. The VPN request would be redirected to either a local IP address on the switch or the DMZ address (whatever works) that would be my VPN Gateway. We will both have our own internet service and such, but we just want to be able to view each other's network as if we were physically at each other's house. Cross network printing could be rather convenient for certain occasions too. The big plan in the long run would be to have 2 LANs while having 1 big game without using software like Hamachi
