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Stef
Asked: 2012-03-12 06:48:29 +0800 CST

Secure tunnelling networks with linux

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I would like to build some kind of "virtual network" between two companies located in two different countries. This way, an LAN machine (192.168.x.x) located in the A company could ping directly a LAN (172.16.x.x) machine located in the B company... And vice-versa of course.

In one word: a tunnel...

I guess I have to put, behind ISP router of each company, a box to "connect" my bridged networks. Of course the "conversation" must be done in a secure way (VPN)

Fine, but now What kind of linux distro. will fit the best ? Zentyal, Ipcop , third one ?

linux wide-area-network bridge ipcop zentyal

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Look at OpenVPN. Setting up OpenVPN on Linux boxes for site-to-site VPN isn't that difficult a task.

    There are apparently OpenVPN appliances:

    http://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/download-openvpn-as-vm.html

    I haven't used those, so I'm not sure how they work, but they might be a more appropriate fit for your experience/needs.

    Oh, "bridging" isn't an appropriate term, I think, since you're trying to connect two different LANs, both with their own address spaces. What you're describing is just site-to-site (or LAN-to-LAN) VPN.

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  2. Depending on the routers your companies use you might want to try:

    • OpenVPN (as described in @cjc's answer)
    • IPSec using Openswan/Strongswan (supports building VPN with Cisco devices)
    • and even just using SSH

    Some router firmware (like DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT) have already built-in support for OpenVPN so you just might want to upgrade the fimware on the routers without any need to have additional box.

    Setting up IPSec with almost every Linux distro is easy as well. Note that IPSec processing runs in the kernel space while OpenVPN does all the work in userspace and thus generates bigger system load.

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