> >Would a VPN using SSH be a viable system for say a school district? Amount > >of traffic per day would be relatively low. Several school districts > >looking to implement "technology plans", a phrase I really hate, which > >include VPNs. This is due to need to connect several schools in a secure > >manner for exchanging student info, etc. Using an open source solution to > >provide this service would be one more need checked off as available. > > You'd probably be better off going with a more full-featured VPN > solution, such as IPSec. Linux FreeS/WAN[1] works well for this sort > of thing.
I happen to agree: FreeS/WAN is definitely a more robust solution. It's also more complicated. So, for the home user who wants to give a layer-3 do-it-yourself VPN solution a whirl, I like the VPN-via-SSH deal. If you're looking for higher-end stuff, and also want interoperability with other platforms (oddly enough, Windows doesn't support SSH redirection over virtual interfaces -- imagine that!), IPSec is definitely a good (if not, indeed, the best) choice. There's also PPTP, but I've had mixed success with that, though I have to say that Windows clients for PPTP are a) free (it comes with '98 and W2K), and b) more intuitive and/or easy to use than most all IPSec clients I've seen for the Windows platform. $.02 -Ken ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
