VPN Server

[Dustin Decker]

On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, Chris Midkiff wrote:

> There are several special purpose distro's that have support for VPN 
> and X25, such as SmoothWall linux.  Anyone have any experience with 
> one of these packages?

I've deployed several of the SmootWall servers, and I like them quite a 
bit.  Their commercial product (which isn't expensive) also supports 
(with an add-on product) connections directly from Windows clients using 
native windows software.

http://www.smoothwall.co.uk/products/corporateserver/add-ons/smoothtunnel/

I can't speak to the effectiveness of the add-on "SmoothTunnel" product 
as I haven't used it, but the Corp. version of their firewall is rock 
solid.  If the folks at home are on broadband, they really need a 
firewall anyway.  SmoothWall GPL would run fine on an el'cheapo P100 or 
some such - and can do VPN back to corp server out of the box.  (I 
believe the Corp server supports 5 VPN tunnels, additional require 
another add-on purchase.)

And to pimp SmoothWall just a bit more - I've found excellent support 
for this product.  The Corp server comes with a pair of email incidents, 
and in the rare occasions I've had to use it I've had solutions within 
around 48 hours.  The GPL server has community based support, my 
favorite place to get it is on irc.smoothwall.org in #gplsupport.

Cheers,
Dustin

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