Adam Bower wrote:
Well, given that it is (well was) Windows only software I'm not surprised that there isn't much interest on a Linux mailing list.
The purpose of the email here was to try and determine if there were similar but OSS alternatives.
Now that there is a Linux client (and it took me 5 mins to get working from a standing start with no prior knowledge of how it works, something I can't say about any VPN stuff I've done before) I will doubtless play with it a bit more (I can see use getting my home PC talking to my office test web server for development work, for example). But I'm not going to go far until I understand the security a bit (well a lot) better. An OSS version would therefore be much better.
I for one would not be am certainly not really interested as it is closed and non-free software which when it comes to security stuff doesn't really excite me all that much
Agreed, but I do like the peer-to-peer approach (mostly because it is very flexible and it seems to work very well) provided the security issues can be addressed.
I don't know of any p2p VPN OSS applications, though. I would really like to know if there are any.
Let alone the idea of running a VPN on Windows machines in the first place...
I prefer having a VPN to access a Windows machine rather than having to actually visit one!
I have run hardware VPNs from several manufacturers in the past (think Cisco and Netscreen) but at least they don't suffer from running on a Windows box in the first place.
We use a hardware VPN in the office, but either its closed to external IP addresses that haven't been specifically allowed access (which is secure but inflexible if I get stuck on site and need access to office files), or it allows access to anyone who can guess a username/password (which is flexible but not as secure). At least using the P2P method you have the flexibility of the second method without having an open port on a firewall shouting "guess me" to the rest of the world.
Mark Rogers, More Solutions Ltd