[NTLUG:Discuss] Connecting to a Win 2000 VPN Server

[Rob Apodaca]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:28:39 -0500
George Lass <George.Lass at osc.com> wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience connecting a linux box (RH 7.1)
> to a Win 2000 server running MS's version of VPN?  As far as I
> can tell, Win 2000 is running PPTP-MPPE.  I have seen a package
> that might do the trick (e.g. ppp-mppe-2.4.0-4), but it looks like
> it is for use with a modem on a dial-up line.  I am running
> ADSL into an SMC router/firewall, and my linux box sits behind
> the router.  What I really need to do is to tunnel to the
> server thru eth0.
> 
> TIA,
> 
> George

I believe what you want is here:
http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/

On your linux client side, you should not have to do anything special to
your firewall to connect.
On the server side, if it is behind a firewall, you will need to
redirect port tcp 1723 to the win2k as well as allow protocol (not port)
47 GRE. If the server is not behind a firewall then nothing to do.

ppp-mppe ( http://poptop.sourceforge.net ) is for doing it the other way
around - Implementing microsoft's pptp server on a linux box and then
connecting to it with a microsoft (or linux) client.

Also, FYI, there are many other methods to implement a vpn other than
PPTP. I only implement PPTP when there is no other choice. Here is why:
http://www.google.com/search?q=pptp+security

My vpn of choice is CIPE:
http://sites.inka.de/sites/bigred/devel/cipe.html

Documentation is rough, but if you can weed through it, it is a very
stable and *secure vpn (if a vpn can ever truely be secure).

Cheers,
-Rob