How to connect to M$ VPN server?

[e.fabene]

Hi all,

I have a problem here. I work from home controlling a remote XP machine (using XP's Remote Desktop) via a VPN connection. On XP it'a a simple Start->Connect->Remote LAN, launching the Remote Desktop app and I'm done. How can I do this with Knoppix? Googling around I've read horrible stories about kernel compiling and stuff while others point to simple clients which in turn are not easy to set up. Is there an easy way to accomplish this task? I can't believe that such a common need has not been covered. I am willing to lose some time on it but my collagues will certainly not. It has to just work. As in Windows. Any idea?

Thanks

[spammehere1234]

Hear Hear.

As I sit here on my non-HD-installed recently rescued PC trying to get into my employer's VPN I couldn't agree more. Imagine a Live CD wi/ VPN support so good employers actually encouraged its use to prevent the possibility of accidental virus / worm / other malware sneaking in.

I know we could use rdesktop once we got in, but it's the getting in that's the hard part.



Well, maybe not so hard if your employer doesn't require MPPE encryption (not included in Knoppix, probably due to licensing restrictions... inclusion requires building a custom kernel according to the pptp-linux site). Definitely not like Windows, though.

My Knoppix 4.0.2 CD (and probably earlier versions... don't know) includes the necessary pptp-linux package, but apparently you're expected to know how to do the manual configuration. Good luck! Instead, visit the following web page for me: http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-debian.phtml and follow along. (Don't know your level of experience so forgive the simplicity.)

(0) Click Knoppix Penguin (next to K/Start Button) ->Root Shell

Beware the dangers of ultimate power on your machine, etc.

(1) To install & start pptpconfig, type the following commands:

(See http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-debian.phtml#install_gui )
One way of adding to your apt-get sources is to run the following command:

cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Paste the following two lines from the website as the input 'cat' is waiting for:

# James Cameron's PPTP GUI packaging
deb http://quozl.netrek.org/pptp/pptpconfig ./
(You can paste by highlighting the text above and middle-mouse-button-clicking in the root shell. If you make a mistake, press Ctrl+C to cancel and the up arrow then Enter to pull up the command and re-run it.)

Press Ctrl+D to let 'cat' know you're done.

Since your apt-get sources now include the pptpconfig package, you can install it:

apt-get update && apt-get install pptpconfig
(Press Enter when prompted to continue by the installation program.)

Now you can start pptpconfig by typing in the command:

pptpconfig
(1) Configure the connection

(See http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-debian.phtml#configure_gui )

I didn't want to bother with MPPE and luckily my employer doesn't require it, so I'll survive without it for now... by default the value is checked, so I had to go to the encryption tab and uncheck "Require Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption".

I also wound up choosing "Route all to Tunnel" on the Routing tab right away rather than connecting, pinging, disconnecting, choosing 'Route all to Tunnel' and then re-connecting. (In part because the following problem left the pptpconfig utility without the ability to resolve the IP address of the VPN server.)

Also, pptpconfig seemed to leave /etc/resolve.conf messed up when I was done, so to be able to resolve domain names again I ran the following command to request a new DHCP address and update DNS:

pump

(2) Tada! In hopefully at most 10 minutes for you (and a lot longer for me initially!) you can do a boatload of stuff that Windows makes as simple as clickety-click-click. :D I assume pptpconfig isn't on the Knoppix CD proper either because of licensing (doubt it) or it's hefty dependence on Gnomish libraries... maybe it's in Gnoppix.

As always, good luck, and hopefully something as you've asked for will be in KNOPPIX sooner rather than later.

[spammehere1234]

Bah... after playing around for a long time all I know is that I can't route my way out of a paper bag!

Seems I can't reach any of the Windows PCs on the network inside the VPN (though curiously a Windows CE device is reachable...). I played with routes, MTUs, etc. all to no avail. I can reach (a) myself on the other end, (b) the DNS server, and that's it... I guess I will be dropping an e-mail to the networking crew at work to see if they're interested in helping me find out what's going on.



Well, it turns out things may have been working... there was a power outage so most of the PCs were off. I guess the networking guys already know about my troubles as MPPE encryption is now required for VPN access... I've tried compiling the apt-get'able kernel source and quickly hit script/compiler errors, so it looks like the end of the line for me. Hope the above info was helpful to someone.

[e.fabene]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, my company decided not to use Linux for the laptops because of the lack of support for VPNs, and passed from W2000 to XP :( :( . I fear that unless Linux catches up in this and other areas, less and less companies will really use it for the desktop usages. The problem is that while Linux struggles (or simply doesn't seem to care as for the case of M$ VPNs) to catch up, the competion keeps moving forward. :(