what do I need to use VPN?

[rwatkins]

We have VPN at my office, which allows me to use a cisco VPN client to reach into our office router and obtain an IP address on our internal network.
I would like the ability to do that type of connectivity to my home network as well. I travel quite a bit and keep lots of stuff on my home network and always seem to be missing somthing I need.
If I could setup a VPN access to my home network that would be great.
Im not familiar with the deep details, but I know I have a cable modem which currently goes to a home router which I think uses NAT to assign a private IP range to all my boxes at home.
Im assuming I would need some sort of VPN router to take the place of my current netgear router. Ive tried to do some reading, but am somewhat confused by what I need to do.
Some reading suggests that I first need a firewall which will have 3 ports, a WAN, LAN and DMZ port. I then would use my normal router with NAT on the LAN port, and put a VPN router in the DMZ so that it can be accessed externally. Then, I would put rules in the firewall to allow the VPN router to talk to specific resources or my entire internal network.
This seems rather compilcated, so I was wondering if there was a diagram or other document describing how to setup a VPN environment and what hardware I would be needing.
Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

It would be much easier to use a service like GoToMyPC or even Dropbox than hassling with a VPN.

 

[marros]

OpenVPN

You can get a router that is compatible with dd-wrt or tomato router oses and install openvpn to do what you want. By doing this, you don't have to mess with firewalls, port forwarding, etc. I would reccommend using certificates instead of password for access. Or if you have a computer that is on 24/7, have it the openvpn server and just forward the ports (1024-1195) to this box and have the same thing. I have a linksys wrt-54gs that port forwards to my Asterisk box, which handles my home telephone system (which is up 24/7) and I vpn into it, get a local ip (bridged) and then have access to my NAS devices, my mythtv htpc, and it all works flaawlessly.

 

[jam3ohio]

Hamachi

I use LogMeIn.Com's Hamachi. I loaded the application on my WHS and several of my home PC's and I can easily get at the command line of my WHS and run backups and the like with it. Free software for 16 or fewer machines used in a non-commercial manner.