VPN over Internet

[RajKohli]

Hello Group,

Presently, I am running 2 Internet Cafes and Game Station in my home town.
Both cafes have a distance of approximate 1000 Mtrs. Both cafes are using
high-speed broadband internet connection. Both cafes have 8-8 Desktops PCs
indiviually running and 1 server each for internet sharing. All the PCs have
Windows XP SP2 Installed including the server.

The problem is: Far Cry 2 is very much popular on both cafes and people like
to play it in multiplayer mode. On both cafes, there is no problem playing
the game in multiplayer mode individually. But a few days before, my brother
asked me that why can't we play the game with each other? Is there a way to
connect all PCs of Cafe 1 with Cafe 2, so we all can play the game
simultaneously.

I am not so good in networking so I decided to use Team Viewer. I created to
seprate IDs in Teamviewer e.g. MyCafe1 and MyCafe2. Now, suppose if there are
3 players in Cafe 1 and 2 players in Cafe 2, who wants to play the game then
what I do is:

The computer which will create the game uses the MyCafe1 ID for teamviewer
and all other PCs of Cafe 1 and Cafe 2 uses the MyCafe2 ID to join the game
using VPN feature of VPN. Mostly, it works fine but sometimes some of users
are unable to join the game.

However, it is not a

 

[RajKohli]

Sorry, disconnectted in between.

I was asking: is there any simple way to connect both cafes through VPN
which remain always on. So it becomes easy to connect Cafe 1 PCs with Cafe 2?

 

[Greg Russell]

I was asking: is there any simple way to connect both cafes through VPN
which remain always on. So it becomes easy to connect Cafe 1 PCs with Cafe

2?

http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html

 

[John John - MVP]

This is going to be a mess trying to VPN ICS servers, I stand to be
corrected but I'm not even sure that you can do this, I think that the
local networks will fall apart if you try this, the local traffic will
try to route to the WAN side. You would need VPN servers with NAT for
this, or invest in a good pair of VPN router/firewall appliances.

John

 

[RajKohli]

Thanks for suggestion but OPENVPN seems to be a tough task for me. I am not
so good in networking and TCP stuff.

Setting up OpenVPN needs a little bit hard-work and understanding the
networking in a little bit more depth.

However, TeamViewer is working fine for now. But what I need is a simple VPN
connection for both cafes which remain always connected.

I will let you know the TCP / IP details later and hope you may set a
configuration file for me in OPENVPN.

Thanks and Regards.

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks for suggestion but OPENVPN seems to be a tough task for me. I am not
so good in networking and TCP stuff.

Setting up OpenVPN needs a little bit hard-work and understanding the
networking in a little bit more depth.

However, TeamViewer is working fine for now. But what I need is a simple VPN
connection for both cafes which remain always connected.

I will let you know the TCP / IP details later and hope you may set a
configuration file for me in OPENVPN.

Thanks and Regards.

Easier method is to have a router to router VPN setup. I have used
Netopia R-910 routers for this:

http://www.netopia.com/equipment/products/r_series/index.html

 

[Greg Russell]

In

Easier method is to have a router to router VPN setup. I have used
Netopia R-910 routers for this:

Of course its easier to have the two routers make the VPN connection with
NAT enabled on each, which is why I posted the link.

That's what's usually done with free Linux and opensource software like
OpenVPN and OpenSSH, but I forgot that all y'all are in the constant habit
of giving billions to Billy-Boy and his retinue for everything that one can
get for free. I even get the computers that are used as routers for free
from Craigslist, install a Linux of choice (using CentOS 5.4 on all the
machines here, updated nightly), and the iptables firewalls are the
state-of-the-art for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Knowledge is a *good* thing especially when running Internet cafes, since
profit margins are tight.

Sure, Microsoft makes for a comfortable desktop environment for most average
people since that's all they've ever known, but when real work needs to be
done like VPN, SSH, SMTP and firewalling, nothing beats the free tools ...
even their configuration is easy using free software from http://webmin.com
..

Give M$ all your money for the desktop stuff if you insist, but don't waste
even more of it on things like routers and infrastructure software that can
be had for free.