Help Me Setup a VPN Solution for Home

[GimpyFuzznut]

I'm moving away from home for the summer and am taking my main PC. I would like to be able to securely connect to my home network while away to be able to access files and remote desktop into my server and my Mom's computer to help her out. I don't just want to open ports for RDP over the Internet and use some crummy solution to access files. I'd like to establish a VPN connection and be able to have access to the local network.

What's the best way to do this? My file server runs Windows Server 2003 which has a VPN server application. I installed it but I am a little confused by the setup. It seems this works ideally with 2 network cards (one for wan / one for lan) ? Does anyone have any good guides that can help me walkthrough this using only one NIC connected to a router which does the DHCP and NAT jobs. Is this still an option?

Or is something like Hamachi just a simple, better alternative? I just hope whichever solution I follow that it remains secure. How about OpenVPN?

 

[RebateMonger]

The built-in Windows Server 2003 VPN (either PPTP or L2TP) works fine. I use it at many sites and for my own Servers.

You can set up a Windows Server 2003 with a single NIC as a VPN Server. Just pick the "Custom Configuration" when running the "Manage My Server" Wizard to set up the VPN.

The last time I did this with a single-NIC installation, I followed the Wizard and the VPN came right up. There's LOTS of information about VPN configuration in Windows Help. I just set up a single-NIC VPN in Server 2003 inside of Virtual PC 2004. It took a couple of minutes.

Setting up a PPTP VPN in Windows Server 2003:
---------------------
Manage Your Server
Add or Remove a Role
Next
Remote Access / VPN Server
Custom Configuration
VPN Server
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After you are done, you'll have to give each User "Dial-In" access to be able to log in. Since you have a Router in front of your Server, you'll have to forward TCP Port 1723 and Protocol 47 (GRE) to your Server's IP address. You can either get your IP addresses from your Router, or you can assign them from a fixed list, set in the Routing and Remote Access Control Panel.

To test, try connecting from INSIDE your network first. If this works, then try connecting from OUTSIDE (through the Router). The Windows VPN client requires only the address of the VPN Server and your Username/Password. There's no need for any additional configuration if you are using a PPTP VPN. Well, you may want to "uncheck" the "Use Default Gateway on Remote Network" box in the Advanced TCP/IP Settings of the VPN Client's Networking Configuration. If you don't, you'll probably lose your ability to browse the Internet while you are remotely connected to your VPN.

Using the VPN Client, Error 800 means you aren't properly handling TCP Port 1723. Error 721 means that GRE (VPN Passthrough) isn't enabled in the router, or else the router simply doesn't handle it properly. (This is common with home-grade routers).

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

Wow. Thanks for the best response I've ever got on these forums. Wow.
I'll try that out tomorrow and see how it works out. I was using Hamachi in the mean time and it seems to the do the job pretty well but just feels kinda slow.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you are already using Hamachi, and if you have no issues of "trust", then you could find that you should stick with it. I'm sure that Hamachi is just fine, security-wise. I'm just old-fashioned. 😉

As I mentioned, VPN Passthrough (of GRE protocol communications) is frequently a stumbling block for many home-grade routers. It's hard to predict if a given low-end router will properly pass GRE for a Windows VPN.

 

[EvanAdams]

Did this end up working for you?

Were you able to remote desktop into your mom's computer? how?

 

[Gooberlx2]

I tried setting up OpenVPN on my network, but I simply couldn't access routing tables on my router, so I couldn't get it to work. I also tried iPig, which was exhaulted by Steve Gibson on his show, but that didn't work at all either. For whatever reason the server and client apps just wouldn't talk to each other.

Last try I setup Hamachi (free version) on one profile, used winserv to make it run as a service (using "-config c:/doc&setting/USER/appdata/hamachi" as part of the command line argument so it would startup with the same networks everytime), installed privoxy as a service, and now I've got a secure VPN and browsing option at open wifi hotspots. By far the easiest and only working option for my purposes.