Topic: Adding a 3rd Network card.

[bcruse]

Is it possible to add a 3rd network card for incoming vpn connections? has anyone done this? I want to be able to tunnel in thru the third card and have acces to the internal network as well as the external interface for internet. anyone have any tips?

[CharlieBrady]

Is it possible to add a 3rd network card for incoming vpn connections?

A VPN by definition is an existing network connection, not a new and separate interface.

SME server has no support for a 3 NIC configuration. It has been suggested as a New Feature. Search the bug tracker for discussion of the pros and cons of the feature.

[bcruse]

What I have is this, I have an (1) internal network, an (2) internet connection that will not allow vpn connections, and an (3) internet connection for vpn tunnels. I have it setup right now for the vpn clients to access the internal network, but they cannot access the (2) second network for internet. anyone have any ideas on how this can be done?

[arne]

I am using a SME 7.2 with a 3'rd Network card, that has to be described as an "experimental solution".

I believe that even if you made a "3 NIC hack" on the SME 7.2 it would be difficult to make such an arrangement, as mentioned, to work based on a SME server with 3 NIC's. (A standard Linux distro like Centos or Ubuntu might have been more easy for such an arrangement.)

I think that there still might be an easy way to give some of the requested functionality that will not require any hacking of the SME box or risky solutions.

If you use two different SME boxes set up like a "standard gateways" and connected against the same physical lan segment with two ip adresses in the same logical lan segment, lets say 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 as an example, I wonder if this would not give some of the requested functionality ? (One of the two dhcp servers will have to be turned off and there might be some issues around correct dns resolving for local adresses (??) )

I have not tested such an arrangement but is there any good reasons that should make it not work ?

It should be easy to test out using an extra spare PC and it should be interesting with a feedback if it could work or not.

There might be one other option as well that is not a real VPN soultion, but that might do the job, depending on the situation. This is to use only one SME box and SSH tunneling into this gateway via Putty. The standard port is tcp 22, but I wonder if not the standard sme gateway will allow you to choose the incomming portnuber that might be open.