Cassiano Leal wrote:
Hi list,
I would like to know if it is possible to achieve what I am trying to.
Here's the situation.. In my work I have a few tools that only work on
Windows. Apart from that, to hook to the company's VPN I need some
proprietary tools that again only run on Windows. To work around these
issues I have installed Win XP on a VM using VirtualBox. This way I
can use most stuff on Debian and the few tools that are Win-only I run
inside the VM.
The problem is that I need to work from home sometimes and, again, the
VPN only works on Windows. I can use the VPN on the VM all right, but
wanted to be able to hook my Debian network to the VPN that's running
on Windows.
The VM's network is set to bridge mode, which means that it connects
directly to the router and has its own LAN IP. It is using the same
interface as Debian (the wifi card in this case), but they have
different IP addresses and can talk to each other. I even set up an
SSH server on the VM and could connect to it from Debian.
The problem seems to be that when I connect Windows to the VPN it
grabs a VPN IP address and changes the routing table. From that point
on I cannot talk to the Windows machine from Debian anymore.
Does anybody have any idea how could I achieve VPN connectivity on
Debian in this scenario?
You just say 'VPN', which is becoming a generic term for any kind of
remote access protocol. Do you actually mean a VPN such as OpenVPN,
PPTP, L2TP or IPSec, or do you mean a remote desktop system such as
provided by X, Windows RDP or Citrix? The default Windows true VPN,
obtained without any third-party software or certificate configuration,
is PPTP.
One important use of a true VPN is to connect to a secure Internet proxy
from a physical location in an insecure network, such as a public Wi-Fi
facility. In this case, it is necessary for all traffic from the client
to pass through the proxy once the VPN is open, and to facilitate this,
Windows clients have a tickbox in the VPN configuration called 'Use
default gateway on remote server' or something similar. This is selected
by default.
If what you are using really is a Windows VPN, then look for this
tickbox in the configuration dialog box and untick it. The Windows
client will then only route traffic intended for the remote LAN through
the VPN. Make sure, as always with routed networks, that physical
network addresses at both ends of the VPN are different. By default, the
VPN itself bridges from the client VPN endpoint to the remote VPN
server, but routes between the client's physical LAN and that VPN endpoint.
Some information which you may not have and which may extend your options:
-Windows XP Professional and Vista Business (or higher) workstations can
be remotely controlled using Remote Desktop Protocol. If your workplace
has an unused machine running one of these operating systems (or a
Terminal Server), either Linux or any version of Windows may be used as
a client to login remotely. This uses a single TCP port, unlike the
Windows VPNs which use an additional IP protocol, and can be tunnelled
over SSH where a remote server exists. It is also (recent versions)
considered secure enough to work directly across the Internet.
-Linux has a client which can connect to a Windows PPTP VPN server. This
can be used to operate web-based software on the remote LAN, to access
files, or to tunnel RDP if the company has a policy not to allow RDP
directly from the Net.
--
Joe
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