VPN newbie

[adoit90]

I'm trying to set up a VPN with the purpose of file sharing being top priority for me, only I'm struggling on just figuring out where to begin. The situation I plan on using this set up for is so that I can have my desktop host network folders from my dorm room and access those folders over the VPN from anywhere on campus or off as long as I have a network connection.

I've played with using freeSSHd to set up my desktop as an SSH server then tunnel sFTP through that connection and using winSCP to get to the files, but that set up results in me having to download each file every time I want to watch a movie or listen to a song. With shared network folders, I can stream this media across an internet connection (I admit streaming over internet may be impractical for any HD video, but it will work fine for my music which I see as the main application of this setup besides accessing school documents for classes).

Any advice on VPN clients or articles or guides I should read to help me get started would be greatly appreciated.

[yawningdog]

Welcome to the PC Guide.

If you have an SSH connection established and can tunnel through it, I think you're already very close to what you're trying to accomplish. Instead of tunneling sFTP, you should just try tunnelling SMB. I've done it before and it works great.

Check out this link.
http://www.blisstonia.com/eolson/notes/smboverssh.php
It describes a method of tunnelling SMB through SSH. It assumes you're using Linux for your SSH server, but it should at least give you an overview and some ideas on how to proceed.

If you can't get this to work, you can always build and IPSEC tunnel. I'm pretty sure most all versions or windows support it, although there are a lot of options to consider when setting up an IPSEC connection and the process can be daunting. But it would be worth it to do at least once if only for education's sake.

Good luck. Let us know how you fare.