One of the servers that are at my disposal has a very low CPU usage percentage (if that makes sense). On my way to set up a PPTP VPN server on the box, I realized my router running pfSense could do it out of the box. In this short tutorial, I'll show you how to get a PPTP VPN working so that you can connect to it anywhere.

Head under VPN -> PPTP

Next, click on the Enable PPTP server radio button. For the Server address put in your WAN (public) IP. For the Remote address range, put in a local IP of which the range will start at. Near the end of the page, check Require 128-bit encryption.

Click save and click on the Users tab. Add a user, in this example, test and a password. You can enter an IP of which the user will be assigned but it's not neccesary.

And that's it! You now have a working PPTP server.

Now, I tried to connect with my iPhone 3G over Wifi. Worked fine. Over 3G? Nope. Did some Googling, it seems like you have to pay an additional $10 for a VPN option (I'm on Rogers) since Rogers gives you a LAN IP (such as 10.x.x.x) and firewalls the GRE protocol (of which is needed for a PPTP VPN to work).

It looks like the only way to get around this is to buy the $10 package, browse over to unlockit.co.nz on your iPhone, change your APN settings and voila.

 

Any comments are appreciated :)

 

 

I recently swapped out my router (a PIII) running Smoothwall with pfSense. I'll say that I'm glad I switched. Anyway, what I found is that Smoothwall wouldn't let me add another LAN interface, making it a real router.

So, once you get pfSense installed, go to Interfaces->(assign) 

Assuming you already configured both your LAN and WAN interfaces, it should be clear which interface to choose for the extra port.

Then go Interfaces-><interface name> in my case, OPT1. Enable the interface, change the Type to Static (static worked for me), change Bridge with to LAN and Gateway to your gateway address (ie, 192.168.0.1)

Apparently, I can't read and didn't read the small print at the bottom. I forgot to add the proper firewall rules to make it work. Go to Firewall->Rules, click on the new interface tab and configure appropriately. To make it exactly the same as your LAN, change the source to <interface name> Subnet.

This is a somewhat short tutorial. If you're using pfSense, you're probably already know what you're doing. Now I can eliminate the switch I was using and go directly to the router.

 

Progression of WS (WorkSimple) 1.0.2, codenamed 'Biomass' has been going good. I have fixed the Theme changer, allowing each theme to have its own directory. Some of the code for the control panel has also been re-written. An admin nav bar is in the works. Also in advancement is the install; which has also been semi re-written. Another big development [next] will be a modules API, allowing anyone to create modules for WS. Icons and custom templating will be available soon, as well as the ability to change blog title, tagline etc... Favicon support too. And again, heres is the link to the overview

http://2500mhz.info/node/22

and the link for to download: http://2500mhz.info/node/25 WorkSimple 1.0.2 should be released either today (21) or tomorrow (22). Anywho, I sorta destroyed my FreeNAS server errr somehow. I just put in a larger hard drive, to add on to it, but it just wont work. I tried booting it and it will boot whatever the harddrive has on (Easys [Linux] or XP). Now, come to think of it, I never checked the jumper pins.... I messed around in the BIOS for a while and still nothing. Its like I never even installed FreeNAS onto it. I was frustrated so I gave up.....till tomorrow.

Did anyone notice the little link on the bracket in FreeNAS(version 0.69b2)? I got curious and looked at the HTML source: FreeNAS © 2005-2008 by Olivier Cochard-Labbe. All rights reserved.  [View license] See? The little bracket ([) is a link to www.tibet.com. Perhaps the author(s) feel the need to support human rights...Seemed kinda strange to me, anywho.... WorkSimple 1.0.1 should be released soon, I have the theme changer working, so you can login to the CP and change the theme. I also still need to add a page where you (the user) can change site info (website name, tagline,post/page, etc...) Other than that, everything is going along fine, I'll [try to] do what I said above ^ and also make some more CSS themes. I'm messin around with FreeNAS right now, so I'll post back later.