[ubuntu-za] vpn experiments

[wesley werner]

Hello,

I'm curious how easy setting up a vpn could be. Would anybody here be keen to try see if we can get one up?

I looked at a few solutions and found one that takes minimal configuration steps.

http://socialvpn.wordpress.com

It uses a web interface to add and see online friends. It tunnels traffic via the xmpp protocol, so you log in through your gtalk account, or if you don't like the idea using your personal account, create a new account at jabber.org and log in with that one. (You can log into pidgin with this jabber account, too, fyi).

steps:
1. download and install the socialvpn package
2. create a jabber.org account
3. profit

setup instructions:

I grabbed the 0.5.1 version (deb), then:

$ sudo dpkg -i socialvpn_0.5.1.deb

    dpkg: socialvpn depends on mono-runtime; however: Package mono-runtime is not installed.
    ...snip 6 similar lines...

don't fret, we call on apt to install the missing packages for us:

$ sudo apt-get -f install

the socialvpn package is now installed. This took about 10MB for me. YMMV.

you start socialvpn in a terminal, and it will print out the URL to it's web interface for you. Use the login link and enter your jabber login, or gtalk login if you dare.

Once in, you add friends by their P2P addresses, which look like "OQ3AP3B...snip"

I will email my full address off list on request :)

notes:

ifconfig shows us a new "tapipop" network interface, I take it provides the transparent layer that redirects tcp to intented vpn friends. But I am still unclear whether those tcp packets know where to go in the first place. Some youtube videos by the creators show how it transparently assigns friends IP addresses that act as if we are on a LAN. 

So running a multiplayer game, I can only guess the game server/client use multicast (or perhaps voodoo) to find local games, which should in theory, we hope, translate to those virtual IP addresses.
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