Quoting Ian Pascoe <softy.lofty....@btinternet.com>: > Johnathon, et al, > > In your post from Thursday you mention you have OpenVPN installed to provide > remote access etc. > > In Rob's case he doesn't appear against this but worried about connections > to his own private network. > > Do you know if you can set up an OpenVPN server on a hosting site, no direct > connection to home network, but then either SSH to the OpenVPN server and > thence onto the client, or through some VNC equivilant?
Yes you can, provided you get the routing correct: SupportTechnician -- ssh --> OVPN SERVER -- OVPN --> IssueComputer There is no reason why you couldn't forward VNC or FreeNX over this connection AFIACT. > About a year or two ago, discussions were held here about providing some > sort of support package from the UK loco, but got bogged down for one reason > or another. This idea of setting up a hosted VPN server could be a way to > provide the remote support that we were finding difficult to arrange. > > I briefly looked at OpenVPN quite some time ago for remote access to my > brother's Windlows laptop as he was having lots of various problems - it > went puff before I got any further with the idea. It rocks. I've looked at many other VPN solutions and I would not use anything else. In the past, I've installed it so that a Nagios server can communicate with client servers behind locked-down firewalls. The clients "dial" the server and initiate the connection, no inbound ports are required to be open on the client router. I've had the Nagios server monitoring both Windows and Linux servers as well, so it works in almost every situation. > Anyone fancy trying to set up such a project to see if it both works and is > workable? > > Maybe set up a server at someones place for testing purposes, and if all > works well there see if those nice people at Bitfolk, or whoever does the > podcast mirrors, could loan us an account for a period of time whilst trials > go on? Or maybe a bit of space on a Cononical server? I'd be interested in looking at this when I get some time to do so, I may also be able to provide some space/hosting for the service but don't hold me to that! > If all works out, extend the server capabilities to host an iPBX and a CRM > (Customer Relationship Management) tool like SugarCRM, I think, and an > instant Ubuntu Support Service is formed. Now if you really wanted to get > onto the bandwagon, get a duplicate setup in the States, Europe and > elsewhere connected together and hey presto! something that no one else has > but is cost effective and a real boon to the Community. Hmm, better stop > there, beginning to go the realms of fantasy! Nope, not fantasy, just running before walking... ;oP > It'd certainly make things a lot easier to do as there wouldn't be problems > with security, bandwidth or such like. It would alleviate a lot of the security issues, however bandwidth from the server would still be an issue, especially if VoIP was to be used. I'll think about this over the next few days, maybe something to add for the next #ubuntu-uk meeting after tomorrow night. Kind regards, Matt. -- Matthew Macdonald-Wallace matt...@truthisfreedom.org.uk http://www.truthisfreedom.org.uk/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
