With the MS PPTP client, there is an option to not use the default gateway on the remote network. By default this is on, so all your traffic goes through the VPN. Turn it off and only traffic destined for the remote network goes over the VPN. I would bet that there are similar options for other clients. Jason Lewis http://www.packetnexus.com It's not secure "Because they told me it was secure". The people at the other end of the link know less about security than you do. And that's scary. -----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of Patrick W. Gilmore Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 1:25 AM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: VPN Solution (WAS: ORBS (Re: Scanning)) At 06:58 PM 5/27/2001 -0700, Owen DeLong wrote:
Roaming staff usually needs some form of VPN access, anyway, and even if they don't, this is a great use for one. Put a VPN client on the roamer's computer (Linux, Mac, and Windows 9x/NT/ME/2k all have IPSEC capable clients available), then use the VPN to get back to the mail relay. If the mail relay is behind the VPN tunnel termination point at the server end, then it should only accept mail for relay from valid VPN clients. As such, you solve the roaming staff problem without an open relay. VPN boxes like Ravlin and Nokia Crypto Cluster are cheap enough today that I would consider it a valid cost of doing business if you don't have a better solution.
I have an "operational" question. (SURPRISE! :) VPN solutions are getting inexpensive. However, they are sometimes far from optimal. The VPN solutions I have used (e.g. Bay Networks, MS PPTP) send *every* packet from the end user machine to the VPN end-point, not just selected packets (like with SSH tunneling). This can cause extremely poor performance for some roaming users. For instance, someone in Sydney with a home office in New York trying to get to a Sydney web server suddenly has to make two round trips to New York, just to cross town. Considering trans-pacific fiber congestion and other problems, this can make the VPN nearly unusable. Of course, you could tell the user to turn off the VPN, but you try to explain to a typical end user when he should and should not have the VPN turned on, or that he cannot send mail while browsing the web, or things like that. So, does anyone know of a VPN that does selective forwarding like SSH tunneling?
Owen
TTFN, patrick