RDC & VPN from OS X to WinXP

[darraghsmyth]

I've recently ordered a 12" PB. When it arrives, I will need to be able to run a Remote Desktop Client (RDC) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) from my OS X at home to our PC network at work.

Does anyone have experience with this setup, and any problems I should be aware of?

My understanding is that I will need the RDC provided by Microsoft
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherp...tedesktopclient).

What about the VPN?

Does OS X come with a VPN that can be configured to talk to a VPN in PC network? While there may be many providers of VPN, do they all use the same encryption/decryption protocols?

thanks in advance for all your help

darragh

[hschickel]

RDC works shockingly well.

You'll need more info from your sysadmin to set up your vpn. PPTP works well out of the box. L2TP over IPSec works well out of the box - but I've never seen anyone use this connection.

If your connection needs to be IPSec (non L2TP) you'll need to run from the command line, get a third party solution (there are a number of these both free and commercial) or add a VPN router to your setup. It would be tough to make a recommendation about this type of connection without more info.

Hugh

[darraghsmyth]

Quote: If your connection needs to be IPSec (non L2TP) you'll need to run from the command line, get a third party solution (there are a number of these both free and commercial)

Do you have any names or links for such 3rd party solutions please? I'll ask our admin guys what protocols they use here. They're *very* MS-biased in our office so I know I'm going to have to do all the work myself. If it requires any changes at their sysadmin end, it's probably a no-goer.

[hschickel]

Thoughts and Links...

PPTP - if you're in an MS house there is a good chance that your vpn is of this type... The out of the box vpn w/ Panther should work fine.

L2TP over IPSec - if you have this your setup will work. This implementation seems quite rare though. Do not confuse this with IPSec. It is not the same and you will not get it to work.

IPSec - Personally if I were connecting to an IPSec system I would connect my entire network using an IPSec capable hardware router and then firewall as needed. Please note that there are great differences with routers here. When you're going down the IPSec road you're getting into pro-sumer or pro territory. Consumer routers start becoming the problem. If you have a consumer router and your connection is not working the first thing to do is eliminate the router from the equation.

My favorite router is the Netopia R9100 with the ter-XL (VPN accelerator) card built in. Prices run $400-$700 retail (w/o w/ the card respectively). I regularly buy these on eBay for <$200 (often w/ the card). http://www.netopia.com/equipment/routers/index.html . You can further protect your network from your work network with this router's rather extensively configurable firewall setup.

Cheaper alternatives:
Netopia R910 - http://www.netopia.com/equipment/routers/index.html
Linksys BEFVP41 - http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=29&prid=607 - this is a very nice machine if you don't need the configurability of the Netopia.
There are many more but I don't have as much experience with them.

If you don't go with an IPSec or PPTP capable router you need to get one that supports IPSec or PPTP passthrough. The machines noted above both do this. Others work but I don't have a lot of experience with them. If you're behind a router and things are not working make sure passthrough is available and enabled and that the router has up to date firmware. If the above is true and there are still issues negotiate a direct connection to the internet, get the connection working and then add the router back into the mix.

Software
If you have a Cisco router get the Cisco software. After that I would go in the following order...

IPSecuritas - generally as good as VPNTracker but with far fewer specific setup instructions - if you need instructions VPNTracker may be a better way to go
VaporSec - works well with simpler configs
Terminal - this requires some work on your part
VPNTracker - works well but is expensive - I also believe this functionality will likely end up in Tiger - very well done instructions for many specific configurations

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20478 - IPSecuritas - free - my personal favorite

http://www.afp548.com/Software/VaporSec/index.html - VaporSec - free - works for simple configs or VaporSec to VaporSec point to point configs

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16007 - VPN Tracker - $89.99 and up depending on use - works well but is quite expensive

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12696 - Cisco - free to Cisco router users / n/a to everyone else (hint - you can easily find this software if you look in the .edu domains - be careful about license agreements here though) - very functional but available only to cisco router users

Don't worry too much. These things generally work fine. You've already won half the battle just by having terminal services available.

Hugh

[dafuser]

Quote: Originally Posted by darraghsmyth I've recently ordered a 12" PB. When it arrives, I will need to be able to run a Remote Desktop Client (RDC) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) from my OS X at home to our PC network at work. Does anyone have experience with this setup, and any problems I should be aware of? My understanding is that I will need the RDC provided by Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherp...tedesktopclient). What about the VPN? Does OS X come with a VPN that can be configured to talk to a VPN in PC network? While there may be many providers of VPN, do they all use the same encryption/decryption protocols? thanks in advance for all your help darragh

I use the Microsoft RDC client to connect to my WinXP Pro desktop at the office. I connect using the Apani VPN client http://www.apani.com/ (formerly Netlock VPN client) to our Nortel VPN switches.

The Apani VPN client is available for both Nortel and Cisco VPN switches. You can download a trial version and play with it for a couple of weeks.

It has saved me the drive to the office late at night more times then I can count. Well worth the cost to me ($95.00). Easy to setup, works through Safari.