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VPN suggestions?

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  VPN suggestions? Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> - 2018-07-11 00:30 +0200
    Re: VPN suggestions? Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org> - 2018-07-11 01:30 +0200
      Re: VPN suggestions? Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2018-07-11 04:20 +0200
    Re: VPN suggestions? Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2018-07-11 05:20 +0200
      Re: VPN suggestions? Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2018-07-11 22:20 +0200
        Re: VPN suggestions? Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2018-07-11 23:10 +0200
        Re: VPN suggestions? Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2018-07-12 02:40 +0200

#197465 — VPN suggestions?

Greetings;

I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house
that are all on a local network.

And suggestions, hints, warnings?

TIA!!
Dennis

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#197466

Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:

> I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house that are all
> on a local network.

What do you mean by “set up a VPN”?

Is it sufficient to pay someone else to host the VPN, and your computers
connect to that VPN managed by someone else?

Do you expect to manage the VPN software? The hardware? Or do you want
that job done by someone else?

> And suggestions, hints, warnings?

Be sure that the VPN is run by someone invested in *your* security. This
excludes parties that offer “zero cost VPN” to all-comers; their
incentive is mostly to turn your traffic into money, which almost
certainly conflicts with your privacy.

So, that means either you (or a party who already has your trust and has
no conflict with your interests) set up the VPN specifically for you;
or, you find a managed VPN for whom *you are the customer*, so that they
will want to serve your needs and not someone else's.

Once you explain more what your purpose is (and what you mean by “set up
a VPN”), we can give more specific advice.

-- 
 \       “One of the most important things you learn from the internet |
  `\   is that there is no ‘them’ out there. It's just an awful lot of |
_o__)                                            ‘us’.” —Douglas Adams |
Ben Finney

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#197467

On Tuesday 10 July 2018 19:26:17 Ben Finney wrote:

> Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:
> > I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house that are
> > all on a local network.
>
> What do you mean by “set up a VPN”?
>
> Is it sufficient to pay someone else to host the VPN, and your
> computers connect to that VPN managed by someone else?
>
> Do you expect to manage the VPN software? The hardware? Or do you want
> that job done by someone else?
>
> > And suggestions, hints, warnings?
>
> Be sure that the VPN is run by someone invested in *your* security.
> This excludes parties that offer “zero cost VPN” to all-comers; their
> incentive is mostly to turn your traffic into money, which almost
> certainly conflicts with your privacy.
>
> So, that means either you (or a party who already has your trust and
> has no conflict with your interests) set up the VPN specifically for
> you; or, you find a managed VPN for whom *you are the customer*, so
> that they will want to serve your needs and not someone else's.
>
> Once you explain more what your purpose is (and what you mean by “set
> up a VPN”), we can give more specific advice.

+100 on this advice.

For instance, and this is just one way, decades ago I set all my stuff up 
on 192.168.xx.zz addresses, which are NOT propagated thru a router to 
the internet or vice versa.

I have one outward facing address at a fixed ipv4 address determined by 
the MAC of the router. That router is running dd-wrt. As is a spare that 
has its MAC set to clone the main router. It also runs iptables and 
dnsmasq. All local addresses are in the hosts files, identical on all 
machines, with resolv.conf set to search hosts, dns. The dns is the 
routers local address on all machines, so that if where I want to go is 
not a local address obtainable from the hosts file, then the router is 
queried, which if dnsmasq has not already cached the lookup, sends the 
dns request on to my ISP's dns server. And it all happens in 
milliseconds, so my access to the net from any of my machines is 
transparent. Yet in nearly 2 decades, only one person has been able to 
get into this system, and he was both invited and given the login/pw's 
to do it.

As a guard dog, dd-wrt has very quick reflexes and sharp teeth.

And there is nothing virtual about it. Yet it Just Works(TM).

I do have a couple 8 port switches in order to give me that connectivity 
here, and in the garage, plus a 4 port hub in a smaller outbuilding to 
hook it all up. That 90 foot piece of cat5 to that outbuilding from the 
house has now been blowing in the wind for nearly 2 decades, surviving a 
100+ mph blow that took down 4, 30 yo 40+ ft pine trees, part of this 
houses roof, and about 70 feet of privacy fence. And it still works.

Thats how I do it.

-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>

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#197468

Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:

> Greetings;
>
> I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house
> that are all on a local network.
>
> And suggestions, hints, warnings?

Your question as stated doesn't really explain why you want a VPN, and
what you're planning to do with it.  All you've mentioned is a private
network; if that's all you're doing, there's no reason to have a virtual
private network on top of it.

FWIW, I've got a few machines at home that are networked, but get in
remotely from my laptop using a VPN.  It's hosted on one of my machines,
and I'm just using openvpn.

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#197517

On 07/10/2018 10:59 PM, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:
>
>> Greetings;
>>
>> I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house
>> that are all on a local network.
>>
>> And suggestions, hints, warnings?
> Your question as stated doesn't really explain why you want a VPN, and
> what you're planning to do with it.  All you've mentioned is a private
> network; if that's all you're doing, there's no reason to have a virtual
> private network on top of it.
>
> FWIW, I've got a few machines at home that are networked, but get in
> remotely from my laptop using a VPN.  It's hosted on one of my machines,
> and I'm just using openvpn.
>
>
You seem to downplay a free VPN. What about TOR Browser?
Do you know anything about that? I would prefer not to have
the browsed address know who I am. I think (but I'm not sure)
that this is the function of TOR Browser.
Thanx for any info--doug

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#197520

On Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:09:47 -0400
Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> wrote:

> On 07/10/2018 10:59 PM, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> > Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:
> >  
> >> Greetings;
> >>
> >> I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house
> >> that are all on a local network.
> >>
> >> And suggestions, hints, warnings?  
> > Your question as stated doesn't really explain why you want a VPN,
> > and what you're planning to do with it.  All you've mentioned is a
> > private network; if that's all you're doing, there's no reason to
> > have a virtual private network on top of it.
> >
> > FWIW, I've got a few machines at home that are networked, but get in
> > remotely from my laptop using a VPN.  It's hosted on one of my
> > machines, and I'm just using openvpn.
> >
> >  
> You seem to downplay a free VPN. What about TOR Browser?
> Do you know anything about that? I would prefer not to have
> the browsed address know who I am. I think (but I'm not sure)
> that this is the function of TOR Browser.
> Thanx for any info--doug
> 

We need the OP's application first. There are three very different main
reasons for using a VPN:

1. For using a computer on an insecure Internet connection, such as
free wifi in a restaurant. You make a VPN connection to a server
somewhere, which may be a machine at home, and route all Internet
traffic through this encrypted link and out onto the Net from the VPN
server.

2. For moving your apparent home public IP address to some other
location, either just for anonymity or to the other side of a
censorship or copyright firewall.

3. From outside a private network, to access resources within the
network securely.

Things become complicated if multiple machines in one network need to
connect to a second network, or an external VPN server. Some VPN
protocols only permit one connection between two public IP addresses
(or at least their implementation or local firewall conntrack code does)
and a site-to-site VPN may need to be implemented between the two
Internet routers. Site-to-site can be done between network hosts rather
than routers, but the routing gets messy then.

-- 
Joe

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#197523

Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> writes:

> On 07/10/2018 10:59 PM, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
>> Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> writes:
>>
>>> Greetings;
>>>
>>> I want to set up a VPN for several computers in my house
>>> that are all on a local network.
>>>
>>> And suggestions, hints, warnings?
>> Your question as stated doesn't really explain why you want a VPN, and
>> what you're planning to do with it.  All you've mentioned is a private
>> network; if that's all you're doing, there's no reason to have a virtual
>> private network on top of it.
>>
>> FWIW, I've got a few machines at home that are networked, but get in
>> remotely from my laptop using a VPN.  It's hosted on one of my machines,
>> and I'm just using openvpn.
>>
>>
> You seem to downplay a free VPN. What about TOR Browser?
> Do you know anything about that? I would prefer not to have
> the browsed address know who I am. I think (but I'm not sure)
> that this is the function of TOR Browser.
> Thanx for any info--doug

I'm not downplaying a free VPN, I'm saying it's impossible to give
advice without knowing what he wants to use one for.  Another followup
by a different Joe gives several reasons someone might want a VPN; it'll
be done differently depending on what the goals are.

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