Internet crossing network

[HodgeHi]

Hello all,

This is one for the home project.
I have a G5 mac at home connected to a USR8054 router.
My brother has a mac mini running as a server (10.4) at his home behind a net gear rangmax router.

Both are connected to blueyonder.

How would i go about setting up a network connection to his house whereby allowing me to authenticate against his open directory?

Would it simply be a case of setting up a VPN connection to his house and then opening the appropriate ports on his server to allow the authentication or would this pose a security risk?

if the VPN is the way to go how secure is this connection ( i assume as secure as the shared secret).

Thanks for any help.

[ico2]

If it is just the one machine at each end, just make each the default DMZ machine for the router (seems to be the name of the option on my router anyway), then use the firewall on each machines to only allow the ip address of the other router to connect, then just give them an entry in /etc/hosts on the opposite machine, then simply treat them as normal.
Or, if you only want authentication, just open the relevant port, probably better than the above.


Of course the above method is really insecure, hackable in minutes perhaps, but still, easier than VPN.
Also, not sure if /etc/hosts is right for macs, works in linux anyway.

Some VPN systems support openssl encryption with good key strength, if the routers provide something, use that, otherwise try openVPN on the machines themselves



Rereading what you said and what I just wrote, most of what I wrote is useless to you, posting it anyway incase it helps.
ico2

[HodgeHi]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. I haven't had a chance to work through the options that you posted as it is a home project there seems to never be a time to do it. I also need my brother to be available to configure his end. Our times when we are available seem to never coincide.

Anyway thanks for the info and i will let you know how it goes. I will probably go with the VPN access using the router settings though.