I’ve tried to set up a VPN in the past, to create a secure permenant link between the server on which this site is hosted and my home network. I tried both PPTP in the form of Poptop and ipsec implementation FreeS/WAN. Today I succeeded in producing a nicely routed connection with reasonably low latency, using OpenVPN. I think I’d looked into this in the past but I dont think the documentation was as good back then. Now I’ve found that there’s a simple guide to setting up a basic connection with static keys. If you’re lazy (like me) there’s also a Webmin module for OpenVPN, which provides you with some more advanced options. It probably took me about half an hour to figure out and set up the connection.
The bonus thing is that there’s an OpenVPN client for Windows too! I’ve installed it on Vista without problems, but not got around to testing it yet. If I ever find a use for and get a laptop, and I make the mistake of running Windows, at least I’ll be able to connect into my home network.
Debian Sarge users may find this hint handy if receiving an error saying that the nodes under /dev don’t exist.
I’ve used OpenVPN at work for tunnelling Remote Desktop Sessions over HTTP (legitimately on a project) – it’s great! Definitely an open-source hidden gem!
Indead Open VPN is very easy and good ! hope to see more of it in the future