I'm looking for a VPN client that will run off a USB stick. Or something that will automatically generate a Windows VPN connection profile with my specified options.
I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to implement remote
access to our clients' control servers. We want to be able to provide
a USB stick to our clients. When it is plugged in to a Windows XP
computer it needs to be able to connect to their home VPN establish
the connection then open up PocketFirefox to the homepage.
Most VPN clients I have come across require the computer to be rebooted, or they offer no way to setup the vpn connection automatically with autorun.
I did come across this one:
http://www.thegreenbow.com/vpn.html
but it still requires a reboot after the first installation, and their client has crashed on me several times, so it seems to be very unstable.
Can we setup putty to connect in the background to an SSH session and foward all of the ports we need? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Vince
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I think most (all?) VPN clients need admin privileges as they need to install a network adaptor and so you'll struggle to find a portable one as you normally don't have admin access when you want to use your portable apps.
Why do you want a VPN client? If you just want remote KVM control then look at www.logmein.com - it's what I use for all my remote access. Much easier!
It doesn't seem too secure to allow a third party to grant access to my computers.? With a VPN only me and my computer have the keys.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but If logmein's database was hacked, wouldn't they basically have the logins to all of those computers?
They have about 2 million members I read somewhere. They're used by some major IT corporation in the UK for sure. They trust them.
Personally I think it's pretty secure. You have to supply a username and password for the computer you want to access too before you can do anything so the process is
website -> log into website -> select computer to control -> log on using windows password -> take remote control.
So although they could get access to a web page that is served by your computer they would not be able to take remote control or reboot the machine or anything like that. It's all done in 256bit encryption when you are doing the remote controlling.
I don't work for them, just love the product. Especially as it's free!
Ok, so logmein only provides the remote desktop session, then it uses the standard windows login process to get you to the desktop?
So if their security was compromised the only thing the hacker would have is the address, not the actual Windows login password (because logmein does not know it or save it).
If that is the case, then it is more secure than I thought. It's no different than me port forwarding the port for remote desktop out onto the internet.
Interesting, on their news page it looks like they just bought Hamachi. I'll have to give this a try. Thanks for the advice.
Logmein.com also uses port 80 which gets around port blocking.
Correct, it's just the same as having an open port. Except you don't need an open port, it works across the standard HTTP ports so it works very well behind firewalls and NAT.
There are different versions for different features such as remote printing etc. The free version just lets you log in with remote control.
If you think the address has been compromised and you want to change it then there is an option to change it; but as you said, it's as secure as port forwarding. Although much more useful as you can have many machines available on the same network.
You can also make subsidiary users and specify which computers they can access so you can create a master account for yourself with access to all the computers in the company (should you so wish) and then give your employees to only one computer, but still control it from one account.