Topic: Free S/WAN on e-smith

[Glenn Kennedy]

I am about to install free s/wan on two e-smith boxes connected only by the internet. But first, a couple of questions:

Assuming the configuration below, where a secure tunnel is configured between windows machines A&D by free s/wan installation on e-smith servers B&C.

A---LAN---B===internet===C--LAN---D
Win       e-smith              e-smith     Win

How will Windows (98) on machine A treat machine D? Will D show up in A's network neighbourhood, and vice versa? Will A be able to map D's shared drives and printers? Does Windows treat a VPN tunnel over the internet the same way as it would treat a LAN connection to another Windows machine?

My second question assumes that machine A wishes to access ibays on e-smith server C, and that a free s/wan tunnel is configured between A and C. Will e-smith server C treat A as a local user? Can C be configured to allow telnet and FTP access to A without compromising security?

I realize these questions may be more concerned with free s/wan and vpn's generally than with e-smith, but I suspect that the next "big thing" for the e-smith user community will be VPN'ing, given the current security limitations with the e-smith server in providing secure remote file read/write access, ssh aside, and the increasing frequency of attacks by script kiddies and misguided co-workers .

Your comments are appreciated.

Glenn Kennedy

[Charlie Brady]

Glenn Kennedy wrote:

> I am about to install free s/wan on two e-smith boxes
> connected only by the internet.
...
> A---LAN---B===internet===C--LAN---D
...
> How will Windows (98) on machine A treat machine D?

It won't know that it exists.

> Will D show up in A's network neighbourhood, and vice versa?

Not without some changes to the samba configuration of the e-smith boxes. Read up on browse lists, WINS and cross-subnet browsing in the samba documentation.

> Will A be able to map D's shared drives and printers?

Yes. But only with some help, from "lmhosts" files, or by
modifying the samba configuration on the e-smith boxes.

> Does Windows treat a VPN tunnel over the internet the same
> way as it would treat a LAN
> connection to another Windows machine?

A better analogy would be another subnet seperated by a router.

> My second question assumes that machine A wishes to access
> ibays on e-smith server C, and that a free s/wan tunnel is
> configured between A and C. Will e-smith server C treat A
> as a local user?

That depends how S/WAN is configured, but probably not.

> Can C be configured to allow telnet and FTP access
> to A without compromising security?

Probably.

> I realize these questions may be more concerned with free
> s/wan and VPN's ...

They're actually mostly concerned with Windoze networking. But yes, VPNs are certainly going to be important.

I'm sorry that my answers are a bit short. There are no simple and short answers to your questions. You'll need to read up doco on http://www.e-smith.org/ and http://www.samba.org/ I hope they help you some.

When you get it all worked out, don't forget to contribute your patches

Charlie