VPN between two masqued subnets

Jimen Ching jching at flex.com
Fri Apr 27 18:32:11 PDT 2001


On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Deven Phillips wrote:
>	Have I got an answer for you!! We just did a similar setup for our

I also am looking into setting up a VPN.  I want to access my work network
from home, so I won't need to go into the office over the weekends.  The
work network is using SafeNet as the IPSec server.

I looked around for information on VPN on Linux, but most of the FAQ's
were not very clear.  They seem to be written for long time network
admins, rather than regular users.  Anyway, I still have a few questions
and hope you can help me.

1.  Is VPN symetric?  The FAQ mentions client/server sides, but the
instructions seem to imply that there is no real difference.  VPN allows
two subnets to see each other as though they are in the next room, rather
than miles apart.

2.  The instructions only mention setting up ipmasq rules.  I got the
impression that there is some kind of login mechanism.  I.e. where do I
specify the IP address of my work place?  IPSec mentions something about
shared keys or some such, where do I enter that?  The FAQ also mentions
that a VPN link could be broken.  This sounds like a link must be
established, this was not in the instructions.

3.  I only want to connect to my work place's SafeNet VPN.  I do not want
to run my own VPN for others to access.  Can FreeS/WAN do this?  The
FreeS/WAN web site seems to imply that it is a server side software.  Of
course, I don't know if there is a difference between server vs. client
side.  But I do not want to turn my home network into a VPN.  Does the
previous sentence even make sense?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

--jc
--
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org



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