How to create a low cost VPN between two home based LAN's?!?

D

davout

I'm investigating the idea of creating a low cost VPN between my own home
based LAN and a friend who has his own home based LAN. Each of us has a
router that connects to an ADSL connection, with the router plugged into a
LAN hub. The router I presume is using DHCP to connect to the ISP and get a
real-time non static IP address.

Each of our own PC's on the home LAN is using a an automatically generated
IP address, and as its behind the router, a machine on my LAN cannot find
ping a machine on my friends LAN.

My questions...

According to the vendor my router does support VPN connections. Is there a
way to expose a PC on my home LAN so that it can be reached by a PC on my
firend's LAN?

Is there any low cost software out there that can manage this requirement?

Can anybody recommend any sites that have idiot-level instructions for
setting up a VPN of this type?
 
L

Leythos

I'm investigating the idea of creating a low cost VPN between my own home
based LAN and a friend who has his own home based LAN. Each of us has a
router that connects to an ADSL connection, with the router plugged into a
LAN hub. The router I presume is using DHCP to connect to the ISP and get a
real-time non static IP address.

Each of our own PC's on the home LAN is using a an automatically generated
IP address, and as its behind the router, a machine on my LAN cannot find
ping a machine on my friends LAN.

My questions...

According to the vendor my router does support VPN connections. Is there a
way to expose a PC on my home LAN so that it can be reached by a PC on my
firend's LAN?

Is there any low cost software out there that can manage this requirement?

Can anybody recommend any sites that have idiot-level instructions for
setting up a VPN of this type?
Click to expand...

You need to tell us the exact model of the router you are using.
 
S

Sooner Al

Additionally, you can use the built-in PPTP VPN server/client functionality on XP. This is FREE,
which makes it very cost effective...

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn_server.htm
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn.htm

You would need to forward TCP Port 1723 and enable GRE Protocol 47 traffic through the routers. Some
routers call this "PPTP Pass Through" or "VPN Pass Through". Check the manual or the manufacturers
support web pages for help with that...

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights...
 
L

Leythos

Additionally, you can use the built-in PPTP VPN server/client functionality on XP. This is FREE,
which makes it very cost effective...

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn_server.htm
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn.htm

You would need to forward TCP Port 1723 and enable GRE Protocol 47 traffic through the routers. Some
routers call this "PPTP Pass Through" or "VPN Pass Through". Check the manual or the manufacturers
support web pages for help with that...
Click to expand...

As a side note, the inbound PPTP forwarding is not the same as "PPTP
Pass Through" on D-Link or Linksys. The PPTP Pass Through is from LAN to
WAN, not WAN to LAN on those units. Some of the linksys units, depending
on firmware, require forwarding 1723 TCP to computer as well as 47 UDP
to computer, others require 1723 TCP/UDP and 47 TCP/UDP to the computer
- and yes, I know that 47 is not a port, don't ask me why they did it
this way. I had the same problem with a DI-804HV unit from D-Link.
 
S

Sooner Al

It also gets down to firmware issues... Some firmware releases break PPTP Pass Through, at least
that is my experience with a Linksys BEFSR41 (v1) and a Buffalo WBR-G54... Its kind of a crap shoot,
so to speak, with some of these consumer grade routers...

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights...
 
L

Leythos

It also gets down to firmware issues... Some firmware releases break PPTP Pass Through, at least
that is my experience with a Linksys BEFSR41 (v1) and a Buffalo WBR-G54... Its kind of a crap shoot,
so to speak, with some of these consumer grade routers...
Click to expand...

Mine too - I actually use to be able to do inbound PPTP with the BEFSR41
and others, then CISCO started doing the firmware and all bets were off.
Linksys has a hack for their devices on a tech-note about how to make it
work. Same with D-Link, I bought the DI-804HV because it works as a PPTP
End-Point and they said it would work with PPTP inbound sessions passed
through to the server - it was not quite that simple, but, after
googling, it was setup and is working nicely.

The only requirement to make life "simple" is that each end should have
a fixed IP. Without a fixed IP the tunnels can take minutes to regen and
with a fixed Ip it's only seconds.
 
S

Sooner Al

I have PPTP VPN working through my BEFSR41 (v1) using the 1.46.2 firmware...and had it working with
the older 1.42.7 release...

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights...
 
L

Leythos

I have PPTP VPN working through my BEFSR41 (v1) using the 1.46.2 firmware...and had it working with
the older 1.42.7 release...
Click to expand...

Inbound to a VPN Server or just outbound to a server on the internet?

The outbound VPN has never been a problem, only the inbound to a server
acting as the VPN endpoint.
 
Z

Z Man

davout said:
I'm investigating the idea of creating a low cost VPN between my own home
based LAN and a friend who has his own home based LAN. Each of us has a
router that connects to an ADSL connection, with the router plugged into a
LAN hub. The router I presume is using DHCP to connect to the ISP and get
a real-time non static IP address.

Each of our own PC's on the home LAN is using a an automatically generated
IP address, and as its behind the router, a machine on my LAN cannot find
ping a machine on my friends LAN.

My questions...

According to the vendor my router does support VPN connections. Is there a
way to expose a PC on my home LAN so that it can be reached by a PC on my
firend's LAN?

Is there any low cost software out there that can manage this requirement?

Can anybody recommend any sites that have idiot-level instructions for
setting up a VPN of this type?
Click to expand...


You have thus far been provided with a bunch of ways of accomplishing your
objectives, in terms of working around the fact that your router doesn't
support VPN. One additional method is to actually purchase a low cost router
that does support VPN. For example, you can purchase the Linksys WRV54G
CABLE/DSL VPN ROUTER 802.11G for a very reasonable price, and it has the
functionality you need built-in, with no need for workarounds. You might
find this option better suited to your needs than the other methods
suggested here.
 

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