k-wix May 30, 2005 Share k-wix Member May 30, 2005 Hey, me and a few buddies of mine have a few proggies we wanted to try out over a lan, but some of us live far away, and the only way these programs will work is if we're all connected on a LAN. So, im generally fairly computer savvy, i've setup a few lan-networks before, but i wanna know if its possible to setup a LAN right over the internet, There's gotta be some software or some way to do this. Can any of you techies help me out here? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 30, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni May 30, 2005 (edited) look into setting up a vpn. one machine has to provide a vpn server (which doesn't have to be a dedicated machine), and all others need to connect to that server using a vpn client. all those machines become virtual lan clients of the host computer, and can operate is if they were on a lan in terms of network permissions...generally. to be honest, i don't know how to set this up with ms only. at work, we typically use sonicwall, cisco, or adtran vpn...which is all proprietary and not free. try download.com, tucows.com, or wait for a better idea from another member. Edited May 30, 2005 by stuttering.john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice_Berge_00 May 30, 2005 Share Ice_Berge_00 GC Alumni May 30, 2005 VPn would be the way just like John said. I believe at work we use Aventail. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to set it up. If I'm not mistaken some routers have VPN built in you just need to enable it. You guys should check your routers to see if any of you do, preferably the guy with the best uplaod/download speeds should host. If one of your routers does, then the manual / online help should tell you what you need to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 30, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni May 30, 2005 nice thought on the router option, berge. my linksys will pass it through, but doesn't have a built in server. if yours (or anyone's does), plz let me know. fyi - a quick scan of download.com didn't show much in the way of freeware, most were in the ballpark of $300+ for a vpn server suite... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-wix May 30, 2005 Author Share k-wix Member May 30, 2005 Hm, thanks for the info, but my buddy can't seem to create one. I found a very imformative Tutorial here: http://www.learnthat.com/courses/computer/windowsxp/vpn/ but... when he goes through the setup, he gets stuck because the options are *blacked out* when he gets to the top of the 2nd page, he can't select either option so we're totally stuck.. couldnt find any info on it so we're done for now i guess. Anyone know why this might happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 30, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni May 30, 2005 (edited) is he using xp pro or home? i've got $5 he's using home. edit: just read that link--keep in mind, the ips you try to connect to need to have a vpn server enabled. from what i remember, this is only an option on nt4server, win2k server, win2003 server, etc. NOT XP--that only works for client connection, and chances are vpn client only exists in pro. Edited May 30, 2005 by stuttering.john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-wix May 30, 2005 Author Share k-wix Member May 30, 2005 Actually, we're *both* using Pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 30, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni May 30, 2005 Actually, we're *both* using Pro. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> shoot. $5 cs:s cash coming your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox May 31, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member May 31, 2005 Yeah, John, as I recall you are right. WinXP does not have a native VPN server in it. Also, again y'all are correct, I don't know of any SOHO routers that actually have a VPN server in them...Most only have VPN passthrough. Unfortunately, if you don't already have the software or hardware, VPN isn't much of an option for the casual user...it's not a cheap arena to enter. If any of y'all are Linux-savvy, I believe there's freeware implementations of VPNs on various flavors of Linux. You can also look into Knoppix, a CD-bootable (CDRWs work I believe) Linux kernel. This would require a dedicated machine, of course, but it wouldn't take much of a machine. Otherwise, what the software probably means is that it needs a Windows network, or possibly IPX, some form of connectionless protocol which is not supported by the nature of TCP/IP. What software is it? Maybe that will shed some light on alternatives. Otherwise, sorry...get cracking on that Knoppix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice_Berge_00 June 1, 2005 Share Ice_Berge_00 GC Alumni June 1, 2005 You may want to check out VNC. I'm not sure if it costs anything, but a buddy at work told me that it has a client and a server. Possibly diff progs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters June 1, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni June 1, 2005 http://www.realvnc.com great (free!) remote desktop tool that compares in most regards to pc anywhere. it's what i use on a daily basis to beat works content filtering service....which has since blocked gamerscoalition.com due to excessive traffic (view new post, coffee, view new post, coffee. repeat) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 1, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 1, 2005 Hehe, yeah, VNC kicks butt. I used that...oh, it must be almost 10 years ago now instead of a KVM switch to manage a couple of Redhat boxes I had running. Back then it was a freeware program from a research lab somewhere...I'm sure it'll say on the page. Glad to hear they've gone full-time with it, but that's because it still sounds like there's a free version. Unfortunately, unless things have changed it won't solve the problem at hand. I'll poke around the office and see if I can't find any other workarounds, but you either need to find a way to get the software to work with TCP\IP or find a way to encapsulate connectionless packets on TCP\IP. Can you tell us what software this is by chance? Old games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 3, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 3, 2005 Here's a starting point for NetBIOS encapsulation on IP: http://www.ehsco.com/reading/19960915ncw1.html "A layer between the two must map NetBIOS names to IP addresses and convert IP addresses back to NetBIOS names. This layer is known as NetBIOS-over-TCP/IP (NBT) and is documented in Request For Comment (RFC) 1001 and 1002. See "Sharing Files Over The Internet With Windows95" on page 116 in our August 15 issue for some implementation assistance with NBT in Windows95." I don't know of any actual software implementations of such, and RFC 1001 says to me mid to late 80s, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. However, it is a lead and it may be doable using a custom WinXP bridge if such protocol functions exist. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters June 3, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni June 3, 2005 /me high fives appalachian fox. nice lead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL June 3, 2005 Share dwEEziL Member June 3, 2005 I know a previous version of PGP allowed you to set up a peer-to-peer VPN connection (no server needed). The later versions of PGP (after it was bought) don't include the firewall or VPN thing but maybe you can find a similar p2p VPN utility (hey, that might be a good thing to google for). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 6, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 6, 2005 Nice, I likes it. iirc, there are Linux implementations of VPNs / encryption tunneling programs that can be set up, but I didn't know they came to the WinDesktop. Man, wish I had my hands on that a while back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 6, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 6, 2005 You know, it also occurs to me that with the move to DNS (rather forcefully) in Windows Server 2003 for name resolution, if y'all are all running WinXP (and possibly Win2k) and someone was savvy enough to set up a DNS server, you could do Windows networking across routers (ie on the internet). Of course, whether or not that's helpful depends on the application you're trying to run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
random_n00b June 7, 2005 Share random_n00b Member June 7, 2005 Configure Windows XP Pro to be a VPN server Not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that's what would need to be done. And as a little footnote: MS Terminal Services/Remote Desktop (comes with XP Pro) is way cooler than VNC is, especially if you install the SP2beta patch that enables concurrent sessions. You can be using your computer remotely in one account, and have the console session still available at your home computer if someone were to walk up to it. And other cool stuff like clipboard sharing, resolution scaling, file transfer, audio redirection... it's just better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 7, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 7, 2005 Well I'll be a sonofa... Nice find, N00b! Didn't know WinXP could do that. From what I gathered from the article, that's EXACTLY what needs to be done. A little searching turned up a doc on Microsoft's site as well: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/m...xpert/vpns.mspx N00b, I also agree that Remote Desktop is in many ways "cooler" than VNC, but VNC is cross-platform, both server and client, which makes it the only viable choice in certain situations, and it has other advantages that aren't window dressing that make it better for some things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters June 7, 2005 Share stutters GC Alumni June 7, 2005 have either of you two been able to set this up the server on something other than the lpt/printer port? if you do, let me know how. i tried for about 5 minutes, then gave up. i love this caption to one of the pictures in the cnet link: "Note that you are not presented with any of the network interfaces on the computer." my question - well why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox June 7, 2005 Share appalachian_fox Member June 7, 2005 From what I gathered from the article, that's for adapters other than specifically internet adapters (network cards, modems). Why someone would want to encrypt data travelling over a parallel cable baffles me. Just go past that step w/o checking the parallel port and give it a try. I don't know that it works, I never tried it, but it is on Microsoft's site, and I didn't notice any 1st of April date... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now