[dba-Tech] I am an OpenVPN convert

OpenVPN is a wonderful product. It is like Hamchi in a way but it is sort of
like comparing a DLink router and Cisco router. The DLink has lots of
features in it but it is not fully programmable. 

OpenVPN does not provide an interface like LogMeIn that is up to the
individual stations but it does provide complete encapsulation of all
members within the network regardless of where in the world they are. I.E.
You could take a laptop to Mexico and as soon as you have established an
internet connection you are back in the network just like you were in the
office.

Unlike, say the Hamachi server, where you contact it and it passes your
access on to a single point of destination and uses specific range IP
addresses to slide under a remote stations firewall, OpenVPN can just use a
network's standard open addresses like 8080 or 80. You also need to have a
server of your own, (as well as access to the main OpenVPN server),
controlling and managing all the clients in the extended network. It does
not have to be any big server, just an old beater box that can run command
prompt Linux will do just fine. Each station and server, when they are
online, sends a token, indicating a station's identity and current IP
address, to the main OpenVPN server. The main OpenVPN servers do nothing
else but hold the location tokens and release that information when called
by your OpenVPN server. If the location of your VPN Server changes, it just
communicates its new location with the main OpenVPN server and things just
carry on. It does nothing more.that is unlike the Hamachi server.

Once any station within your wide access VPN network is established and
connected a knowledgeable OpenVPN tech can finely control access of any
station to any station.like that Cisco router.through-put, access times,
available printers etc. OpenVPN also has the ability to pass access back and
forth between remote stations so you could be communicating with a buddy in
Europe while you are relaxing in Central America and your office OpenVPN
server is running in Victoria.

After the network is setup and your stations attached, regardless where in
the world you are, it is just like being back in office. Any access you had
in the office you will have exactly the same even in Timbuktu. The
difference of course is that all access is within this extended  256/4096
bit encryption pipe.. Complete security. There are far more features
available, with OpenVPN, than just the ones I mentioned but you would have
to go to the following link for that information: http://openvpn.net/ 

Next question, you may ask is, "Do I know how to setup up such a system and
network?". Well no...not yet anyway. My system was setup via the brilliance
of my son-in-law but he took no more than an hour to setup an OpenVPN server
on the office Linux server and added a couple of remote laptop stations but
he said he just used most of the defaults.

Jim