home VPN

[chris heyworth]

hi all, does anybody have experience setting up a VPN access to a home network (will only really be for backups and, but also the odd file transfer)?

Thanks

 

[altmind]

Yes, I had some experience setting up a VPN access to a home network.
openvpn.

 

[Rand__]

Don't most internet gateways (isp provided, own, or firewall, whatever you run) provide this functionality nowadays?

 

[gregsachs]

I've been using softether for about 7 or 8 years now.
I think the performance is a little better than openvpn, and it runs on port 443 so it can sometimes work over networks that block vpns(for example, when I was going to china for work).
Can also use dns packets for VPN. It also works at L2 or L3, has vlan support...
There are clients for win/mac/linux, plus it can work as an openvpn server for IOS and android clients, as well as an ipsec/l2tp server.

SoftEther Download Center

www.softether-download.com

I run it with a pi connecting back to my house from my parents that serves as my offsite backup location.

 

[RTM]

Given all you want to do is file transfer (I consider backup to be this too), you could consider forgoing a VPN and setup a server with SSH (without allowing password authentication), if SFTP works with your stack it will be a pretty nice simple solution.

If you have a pfSense firewall you could use the built-in VPN functionality in that, it is quite easy to configure (at least OpenVPN is).
But as Rand__ noted, VPN functionality is included in much other firewall/router software.

 

[chris heyworth]

i have managed to get softether working, but only on bare metal, if i try in a virtual machine it connects but i can't bridge to the network.

Chris

 

[gregsachs]

i have managed to get softether working, but only on bare metal, if i try in a virtual machine it connects but i can't bridge to the network.

Chris

Can both confirm and deny-I had it working fine in a ESXi 5.x VM. When I migrated to H-V, it broke. H-V I seem to need to run it on bare metal and give it its own network adapter. I believe this is related to the difference in how the two do promiscuous mode, but I'm not sure.
edit: This post suggests it will work.

Softether VPN Server on HyperV - SoftEther VPN User Forum

www.vpnusers.com