free multi platform VPN

[master7045]

Hey everyone, I want to be able to access my home files (pictures, music, docs, etc) while I'm away from home. I just bought a android tablet and it is always with me when I travel. I'd like to be able to connect back to my home PC, which would be a win 7 box that is always on, from any of the following devices: android tablet (Samsung 7" galaxy tab, ipad, iphone, & windows XP/7 laptop/PC. Is there anything "free" out there that will let me do this? I've messed around with hamachi and it worked OK, but that was windows only. I have a DD-WRT enabled router if that helps any. My internet is basic consumer grade 18mbs down via Charter. The PC will be hardwired into a consumer grade d-link "dumb" gig switch. I am by no means an network guru, but I'm willing to learn/ read anything I need to.

Thanks

 

[Zargon]

you can doa VPN server on some flavors of DDWRT but its a bit finicky in my experience

 

[Beer4Me]

If you're decent with BSD, you can set up a cheap OpenBSD box with IPSec VPN. Then use OpenVPN (PC/Linux clients) or Tunnelblick (OSX) to connect.

Software is all free, but you're gonna need to buy some hardware to make a small openbsd server. There are a lot of guides out there (google).

 

[master7045]

I've never heard of OpenBSD and from the little reading i've done it looks a bit above my comfort level, which doesn't mean its a bad option. Just going to take a bit more reading than I was hoping. I have messed around with some Ubuntu and Linux Mint before, I just don't know much about VPNs other than what I use for work.

 

[Hermetic]

Like Zargon posted above, I have encountered a number of small but frustrating issues when trying to use OpenVPN with the DD-WRT firmware.

A lot of other people report being very happy using OpenVPN with DD-WRT, though, so it may be more stable on some versions than others.

With that said, I switched to another third-party firmware called Tomato USB http://tomatousb.org and been very happy with its stability and performance. OpenVPN was surprisingly easy to configure on it, and it has been absolutely rock-steady.

 

[RedBeard]

If you don't want to by dedicated hardware you can always whip up a quick VM and let it run in the background.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Windows 7 contains a built-in PPTP server that you can use for this purpose.

 

[owensdj]

Instead of a VPN you could use some remote control software. I use LiteManager. It has built-in security so you probably won't need to set up a VPN. It has a File Transfer mode if you want to just transfer files, or you can do the Full Remote Control.

http://litemanager.com/

 

[Emulex]

pfsense auto detects vmware now - i plan to run 4 of them in CARP so i can protect 4 vmhosts and have excellent levels of redundancy with multi-wan (2 or 3). Firewall will act as nat for all internal networks too.

 

[Nothinman]

Windows 7 contains a built-in PPTP server that you can use for this purpose.

PPTP is like the WEP of VPN protocols, it may be good enough in some circumstances but should avoided whenever possible.

 

[theevilsharpie]

PPTP is like the WEP of VPN protocols, it may be good enough in some circumstances but should avoided whenever possible.

I don't see how PPTP is any less secure than any other remote connection software that uses password authentication.

 

[Emulex]

Yeah microsoft PPTP (not DD-WRT PPTP) is very good. Not all implementation are the same. the main benefit of PPTP is no extra subnets. you need 1 internal IP for the PPTP server and 1 IP (or more) for the vpn client. all on the same 1 subnet.

not all vpn's are the same. just keep that in mind. (client and server)