OT: Setting up PPP over SSH - In windows?

[Jim Howes]

Setting up a linux to linux point-to-point network over SSH (ad-hoc DIY free
VPN) is fairly straight forward, mainly because the remote SSH runs in a
pseudoterminal, and PPP gets along with that just fine. I can then securely
work in a public network, as I am effectively part of my own secure network in
the office/home.

It gets a little strange when I then use SSH to connect to my machine over a PPP
link running over SSH, but such strangeness is easily ignored.

I am scratching my head as to how I could implement something like that for a
windows client, albeit to a linux server. I.e. allow a windows client, which is
presumably currently connected to an insecure, open, unencrypted, public
wireless hotspot, to create a VPN connection to a linux server using PPP over SSH.

Anyone got any ideas/preferred software that doesn't involving spending money on
proprietary VPN software that probably doesn't work on both windows and linux?

Jim

[Gordon Henderson]

Post by Jim Howes
Setting up a linux to linux point-to-point network over SSH (ad-hoc DIY free
VPN) is fairly straight forward, mainly because the remote SSH runs in a
pseudoterminal, and PPP gets along with that just fine. I can then securely
work in a public network, as I am effectively part of my own secure network in
the office/home.
It gets a little strange when I then use SSH to connect to my machine over a PPP
link running over SSH, but such strangeness is easily ignored.

You might have some interesting MTU issues running PPP over SSH - you'll
find the link pings just fine, but data transfers can be mightilly slow...

Post by Jim Howes
I am scratching my head as to how I could implement something like that for a
windows client, albeit to a linux server. I.e. allow a windows client, which is
presumably currently connected to an insecure, open, unencrypted, public
wireless hotspot, to create a VPN connection to a linux server using PPP over SSH.
Anyone got any ideas/preferred software that doesn't involving spending money on
proprietary VPN software that probably doesn't work on both windows and linux?

PuTTY is a good Win SSH client, but I've no idea if you can then run
PPP over it.

How about implementing a pptp or ipsec server on the linux side of things,
then just running the 'standard' stuff that comes with windows?

One thing you can do with SSH, is port-forward, and I use this a lot
for both Linux and Windows clients. Eg. port forward 80 to the far-end
LAN 'intranet' server, then http://localhost/ will get picked up and
port-forwarded to the remote server. Similarly you can port-forward 110
and 25, then the local mail client uses 'localhost' as the mail server
and it gets forwarded to the remote one.

It's not perfect (eg. you can't easilly mount remote drives), but can
be made to work for most stuff - even remote desktop and so on, and
everything is encrypted in-transit.

Gordon

[Jim Howes]

Post by Gordon Henderson
One thing you can do with SSH, is port-forward, and I use this a lot
for both Linux and Windows clients. Eg. port forward 80 to the far-end
LAN 'intranet' server, then http://localhost/ will get picked up and
port-forwarded to the remote server. Similarly you can port-forward 110
and 25, then the local mail client uses 'localhost' as the mail server
and it gets forwarded to the remote one.

Hmm. Many interesting ideas are starting to form. Thanks.

[Ewan Mac Mahon]

Post by Jim Howes
Anyone got any ideas/preferred software that doesn't involving spending money on
proprietary VPN software that probably doesn't work on both windows and linux?

How about OpenVPN, doesn't cost money, not proprietary, runs on Linux and
Windows? <http://openvpn.net/>

Ewan

[Chris Davies]

Post by Jim Howes
Setting up a linux to linux point-to-point network over SSH (ad-hoc
DIY free VPN) is fairly straight forward [...]
I am scratching my head as to how I could implement something like
that for a windows client [... i.e.] create a VPN connection to a
linux server using PPP over SSH.
Anyone got any ideas/preferred software [...that works] on both windows
and linux?

You're right, PPP over SSH does work, but it's an incredibly inefficient
use of bandwidth. What would be much better would be to use one of the
free VPN applications out there.

For example, I use OpenVPN, which works on a number of platforms,
including GNU/Linux, Windows, and Macs. It's very straightforward to
configure (follow one of the recipes in the documentation).

Chris