Possible to tunnel between homes?

[dorfma05]

I was looking to make (2) different homes appear to be the same LAN. Each house has its own separate FIOS connection and the homes are a few miles apart. Is it possible to tunnel through (on OSI layer 2, I think?) like this?

 

[MGMorden]

How many computers are in each location? If it's just a handful you could likely just setup VPN clients at one location and a VPN server at the other. There are free utilities to do this.

 

[dorfma05]

I was hoping to stream video between locations. Not sure if that changes anything.

 

[seepy83]

If you want it handled by the Routers, then you can get routers that support L2TP.

If you don't have Static IPs at each site, then that's a hurdle you'll need to overcome. I've never done it with Dynamic IPs, so I'm not sure what your options are there...

 

[kevnich2]

Could try this: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/

Keep in mind, you can only go as fast as your slowest connection. If one link is 20/20 but the other link is only 5/2, your transfer speed will be 5/2.

 

[mv2devnull]

If you want it handled by the Routers, then you can get routers that support L2TP.

If you don't have Static IPs at each site, then that's a hurdle you'll need to overcome. I've never done it with Dynamic IPs, so I'm not sure what your options are there...

Yes, it is quite possible to tunnel between two networks. If the routers happen to be Linux machines, then even light-weight, unencrypted IPIP tunnel is possible. Or IPSec tunnel. Or any of the other VPN solutions.

The purpose-made routers are hardly any less capable.

And yes, if neither router retains same public address, then it is challenging connect. Talking of ISP's, some of them do have small print in the contract musing against "server operation", because they'd love to charge some extra for such "feature".

 

[Gooberlx2]

Could try this: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/

Keep in mind, you can only go as fast as your slowest connection. If one link is 20/20 but the other link is only 5/2, your transfer speed will be 5/2.

Yeah, Hamachi is super easy and works well. It's also encrypted I believe, which is a bonus.

 

[Nuwave]

DD-WRT supports PPTP server/client and on the OpenVPN version it supports OpenVPN server/client.

It also supports DDNS, which will help with overcoming the dynamic IP's.

That will get you your layer 2 tunnel using networking hardware rather than your PC's running hamachi or something equivilent. This is advantagous because you could have devcies that are not capable of running hamachi talk to each other through the tunnel without running powering on your PC. eg. Xbox's PS3's etc talking to each other via the tunnel.

 

[kevnich2]

Yeah, Hamachi is super easy and works well. It's also encrypted I believe, which is a bonus.

Correct - it is encrypted. It's also free and very easy to implement as well, just setup your network in the webpage, install it on whatever systems you want in the VPN and your off.

 

[VirtualLarry]

DD-WRT supports PPTP server/client and on the OpenVPN version it supports OpenVPN server/client.

It also supports DDNS, which will help with overcoming the dynamic IP's.

That will get you your layer 2 tunnel using networking hardware rather than your PC's running hamachi or something equivilent. This is advantagous because you could have devcies that are not capable of running hamachi talk to each other through the tunnel without running powering on your PC. eg. Xbox's PS3's etc talking to each other via the tunnel.

It's slow. I've gone that route, setting up a VPN on my 25/25 FIOS connection, and connecting to it via a friend's Comcast 16/2 connection. I get around 300KB/sec. The CPU on the router running the encryption for PPTP seems to be the bottleneck.

I'm using Netgear 834Bv2 routers, behind my actiontec FIOS router. (Netgear in DMZ of ActionTec.)

 

[dorfma05]

I appreciate the input thus far guys. I'm going to have to read through and digest everything when I get home.

 

[Geofram]

Not the cheapest or easiest way, but you can also use two computers with Untangle installed at each location. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a linux distro that's customized to be a router/web filter/security device, so it would basically replace your router.

I use it, and I know it supports VPN between two Untangle machines, but I've never tried that feature personally.