Normally Windows will fail to connect to an IPSec VPN server if either or both the client machine and the server are behind some form of NAT.
However it is still possible to configure a Windows machine to allow such connections via a registry tweak.
I had to look for an alternate VPN system to use when I need to dial back to my home network while on the move to access my media library or when I require a trusted connection or a whitelisted IP.
The next best thing (and least complicated to set up going from PPTP) is IPSec/L2TP, which has built-in support in most current operating systems (including Windows, Linux and Android). Due to its double-encapsulation nature (L2TP performs the tunnelling of data and IPSec provides the encrypted channel), L2TP/IPSec has a more complex setup and configuration procedure, both for the server and the client.
Running a PPTP server on your own router is very handy when you need a secure/trusted middle point from which to connect to all your external services while being on the move.
Or maybe you just want to access some private resource that’s only available in your LAN. Either way, with DD-WRT it’s very easy to set up a PPTP server.
A VPN connection is still mostly regarded as “business solution”, only useful to connecting employees to the company network. But this is no longer true nowadays.
VPNs can be very useful in protecting the integrity and security of data transfers, no matter who the two communicating parties are. To learn how to set up a connection and connect to a VPN server…
There are mainly 3 types of VPN servers: Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) and OpenVPN.
In this tutorial I set up a PPTP server on a CentOS VPS as its supported by almost all devices natively: Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Mac.
