Setting a VPN using eircom BB

theshadow

Hi there,
Anyone any experience setting up a VPN with eircom bb. Both machine use home starter plus so I'm told I can apply for static IP addresses, is this true?

Machine Specs:
Dell PIII 700MHz 64MB Windows ME
Dell PIV 2GHz 256MB Windows XP Home

Also, do I need third party software to do this? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

Moriarty

Zoink. (moved)

vibe666

it would be bundles easier if you had xp pro on both of them, ut afaik it is possible.

have you googled?

Khannie

I use esat (IOL) for my interweb connection, but I work from home two days a week and need to use a VPN to connect to the company network so it's certainly possible.

Esat give out static IP's for a few extra quids per month, so I'm sure eircon do the same.

If this helps:

I use the cisco VPN client. The server is running in my office. It uses 168bit encryption. Overall, our system is tighter than a nuns knickers. My ping time roughly doubles by using the VPN versus being in-house. Still perfectly reasonable for real-time applications (like VNC or remote desktop).

<edit>
the machine I use at home is a P3 450 with 256MB of ram. It's effectively a dumb terminal. I use the VPN with VNC or remote desktop to use my machines in the office (which are nice and fast).
</edit>

theshadow

Cheers Khannie. BTW, do you still use IOL's ZyXEL ADSL modem or is one built into your cisco client(expensive?)? Also is your connection one way or can you access files on your home computer at work?
Thanks again.

Khannie

No probs.

In answer to your questions.....

I do use the zyxel modem.

Hmmmm, not sure about accessing files here from work. I'll check if I can ping this machine (through my remote connection to my work machine.....I'm at home today).

I can. That means that the machine is on the same domain. File sharing should be straightforward (if slow).

I'm not sure what the setup is on the work side of things, but I googled the cisco VPN client, and I think it uses some fancy pants hardware on the far side, which would leave you unable to duplicate my setup (exactly). That's not to say that you wouldn't be able to do it in a totally software way, just using a different client to mine.

Hope this helps.

Ripwave

I've also used a Nortel VPN client through the ZyXEL model supplied by IOL/ESAT. It connects to some sort of Nortel infrastructure in the US headquarters of the company involved, but doesn't require any special hardware on the "home" side of the network. Once logged into the VPN, the PC has an IP address from the corporate network, and all TCP/IP activity went over the VPN, and there was direct TCP/IP access to anything on the corporate network (and the only way to access the internet was through the corporate networks proxy servers).

So it's definitely possible to do this, but it might depend on the VPN infrastructure that you're connecting to.

tomED

I've done it with EircomBB

Pretty easy if you have a decent router.
First off setup the in coming coming connection on the xp machine.

Create new connection > setup advanced connection > accept incoming connections > allow virtual priv. conn... > select users.... blah...

Then set up your router to point all pptp traffic to the ip address of your xp machine (port 1723)

Get vpn client for ME at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/news/bulletins/l2tpclient.asp

If its not a static ip address - i'd advise downloading the software from www.no-ip.com - great little tool!!! basically creates a sub-domain - something like myhomepc.no-ip.com that updates itself everytime your ip is changed. (well you set it to check at regular intervals)

Then setup your client to access yer XP machine through this domain that you set up!

After that - the only problems then are connecting to the machines once you are connected, you need to use an ip address unless you set up your lmhosts file, which is another saga!

if you need help just let me know!

Tom

fatherdougalmag

I've been playing with http://beta.logmein.com for a while and think it's the biz. Free remote control from any web browser (better with IE and ActiveX controls though). If I want to transfer files then I use an FTP server set up on one of my machines. Alternatively, you can shell out for LogMeIn Pro which allows you to transfer files and print documents on the remote machine locally.