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I think you might be referring only to the purchased NAS boxes. I've been referring to an old mobo or lightweight PC that you've re-purposed to NAS. Both purposes are valid NAS - the latter (what i've been talking about) is based on the origion of NAS. These home devices came along long after NAS was using general purpose HW. I wouldn't even think of owning a pre-built NAS without a terminal - (SSH or even Telnet), but that's just me.

FreeNAS and Openfiler provide a terminal when you have a monitor and keyboard plugged into the NAS itself. And yes they are remotely administered by web GUI, but you can still access shell on the device itself.

Hamachi is not a desktop app on Linux - infact I'd have to say that's its major drawback. (info here). You're probably referring to the unofficial GUI for Hamachi on Linux - which IS experimental, here

You are right about MOST pre-built NAS with no terminal. I just did a quick search on Newegg and only found one pre-built NAS which has SSH admin, but they are available. A disadvantage of re-purposing old hardware is that it can often have higher power consumption than a pre-built one. My old 486 NAS has a 120W powersupply and I pulled the AGP GPU after installation (shutdown of course) and use inbuilt power management provide by FreeNAS. Only have one small fan at half speed, and the 4 Hard drives put out most of the heat when they're on.

Haven't needed to install Hamachi on my NAS, but seeing as we've been talking i'm just messing with it inside VirtualBox.

Cheers and Happy New Year.

I'll be the first to admit that I was scared shitless when one of the users on my office network asked me if he could use Hamachi. I had to explain, very carefully and respectfully, why something that would circumvent our firewall and all of our network security would be a Bad Thing.

I've found that people who are slightly computer savvy will often have a very reductionist view of programming and technology. Because they have a simplistic understanding of the technology, they will assume that any problems or solutions involving that technology will be equally simple. When you explain that these systems are actually pretty complex and involve things that they don't understand, it's important to be very careful. People are often insecure about their computer knowledge, and may interpret your explanation as condescending even when you are making the best effort to be respectful and kind. If nothing else, they may feel disempowered when they find out that their simple solutions are potentially harmful, and that they actually do need experts around to take care of things.

engineers failed to perfect the wasabi-over-ip protocol

Wasn't that the forerunner of Hamachi?

Might check out Hamachi which is a zero config vpn. I discovered this from a friend, and been very happy to keep my desktop, server, and laptop info available, versions for windows and linux.

Though a nice tutorial on setting up a vpn among computers with dynamic IP addresses (I don't have a static IP) would be appreciated.

Try Hamachi. It works flawlessly and your IP on the VPN is determined by your login, not your actual IP. So as long as you're running it, you'll have the same IP on the VPN, regardless of the current state of your real connection. You install it, run it, choose a network name and password and that's about it. They have a central server that handles keeping a list of everyone in your network. Once it gets the list, it starts talking P2P.

Enjoy

Though a nice tutorial on setting up a vpn among computers with dynamic IP addresses (I don't have a static IP) would be appreciated.

Check out Hamachi. Once you setup a network in hamachi, every machine gets a nice static ip address.

You should try using Hamachi. It creates virtual network cards that connect to each other and make your computers think you're on a private LAN. Starcraft LAN games don't go through Battlenet, so it should be just as quick as with bnetd. I use it all the time with some friends to play Worms without having to use their servers. It's a great program and very easy to use. Works on both Linux and Windows, although it isn't open source.

Seriously, you guys should give Hamachi a try. You can build LAN's over the internet with it in a reasonably secure manner. Great for multiplayer games. Also comes in a yummy Linux flavour.

I built a custom web application for this, with wiki, blogging, uploads, gallerys etc. It was fun, but really a hassle because of the two-step process of first identifying the file(s) and then downloading them to your machine if you wanted to work on it. The web GUI was great for browsing files, not so great for directly accessing them (apart from viewing pictures, maybe).

So instead I set up a simple file server with a strict structure (backups, archive, work area, private, pictures, movies, music, incoming etc) and then shared it on the network. Then I installed Hamachi ( dead simple VPN-ish software http://hamachi.cc/ ) on all machines that my extended family has and voila! They get the familiar gui of Explorer and easy copy/paste/edit etc. With some thinking and permissions, it just works with a minimal effort.

I recommend Hamachi as a good, EASY to configure way to secure p2p over the internet. It's free as in beer and works on Windows and Linux. If your lawyers know how to install a program and copy a file to a shared folder, they can securely send you data over Hamachi.

LAN oriented simple VPN that could be shared between known friends .

http://www.hamachi.cc/

Very simple, works well, even clear across the world network neighborhood works
if you tweak your firewall and port forwarding requirements if using NAT .

Ex-MislTech

http://www.hamachi.cc/

Encrypted, simple, fast speeds over LAN, and can connect long haul as well .

Network neighborhood even works clear across the world as long as you can
configure the special conditions for firewalls .

You just need some kind of common forum for ppl to register and get on the network,
and periodically do a total reset, perhaps even schedule them amongst known users .

They keep pushing and it is just going to drive us to crypto, and underground
communities online that are like friendster, where you cannot get in unless
your invited and vouched for .

A 2 tier referral system would be very brutal, ie. 2 referrals to get in .

Package this with auto updating black list firewalling like peer guardian 2
and its gonna make life pretty hard for the RIAA/MPAA and whoever else .

In a way a setup like this would remind me of the BBS days .

Peace,
Ex-MislTech

I have a very small business with three locations (one is my home). The ISP connection varies some are Comcast some are Verizon residential DSL.

As I see it I have three problems. 1. The IP address will be dynamic from the ISP's and 2. Most of the PC's are running Win XP home 3. Would prefer a no cost solution

I would like to be able to remote desktop (ie contral/access) any pc from any location.

I have successfully installed http://hamachi.cc/ Hamachi to address the dynamic IP issue but am working on the XP Home issue (ie. RD server only in XP Pro). I recently downloaded http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/ UltraVNC but I'm lost after the installation. What do you application do you use to start the desktop sharing.

Most of the PC's are behind a Linksys router some are behind a Linksys router then linksys wireless router.

I've played with dyndns.org and no

I'm not a CCNE but I'm no schlub any help would be appreciated.

I've been trying Hamachi. It seems to work as advertised. It makes a connection between a computer behind a hardware and software firewall with a cable ISP and another computer behind a hardware and software firewall with a DSL ISP. Both hardware firewalls have NAT (Network Address Translation. I know not everyone who reads Slashdot works with this.)

However, the cable ISP is Comcast. Comcast, in this area, seems to throttle or stop anything besides HTTP traffic.

1- set up a server on a spare computer (LAMP is pretty easy with a package based disro)

2- install a SVPN on the server and anyone's computer that will connect to it

3- install a BB, like phpBB on the server.

4- configure your BB This way, not only is access to the server private (since it doesn't have a static IP) but when it is accessed via the SVPN, that access is password protected and encrypted end-to-end.

Despite this, don't go uploading how you firebomb airplane hangers (you should be that stupid to firebomb one in the first place, let alone record it). But it is reassuring to know that even if you did it would be private and secure.

1- set up a server on a spare computer (LAMP is pretty easy with a package based disro)

2- install a SVPN on the server and anyone's computer that will connect to it

3- install a BB, like phpBB on the server.

4- configure your BB This way, not only is access to the server private (since it doesn't have a static IP) but when it is accessed via the SVPN, that access is password protected and encrypted end-to-end.

Despite this, don't go uploading how you firebomb airplane hangers (you should be that stupid to firebomb one in the first place, let alone record it). But it is reassuring to know that even if you did it would be private and secure.

http://www.hamachi.cc/ Hamachi is a very easy to use and extreemly hard to block VPN that looks to your system as if it was another network device. these days I leave my laptop at home and access all of my daily needed data + VNC as if it was sitting right next to me

Shouldn't be, unless something is coded poorly. It's not open source, so you can't check it, but it does use strong encryption for the tunneling. I haven't come across any vulnerability reports for it.

Seriously though, if you want to know about it, get it from the horses mouth

I haven't tried it, but what about Hamachi?

For some time, I have had a media box set up at home (behind the couch) running Azureus. Combine that with Hamachi, Firefox, the ConQuery extension and the WebUI plugin for Azureus, and I am a right click away from downloading any torrent I want whereever my laptop is. Tivo's got me beat though, because I can't do it from my phone (yet...).

On the other hand, I've got Tivo beat because I can do what I want with the media I get this way.

...considering tests have shown that newly connected computers are probed within a matter of minutes if not seconds. And of course your connection speed has no influence on whether or not that latest IE exploit hits you.

The only disadvantage broadband can have is some older games don't like NAT and will only properly work over dial-up. (And even this can be overcome with tools like Hamachi.)

Hamachi, available at http://www.hamachi.cc/ or
OpenVPN, available at http://openvpn.net/

Wesley, I am fully aware of this quote. Hamachi was not designed 'over the morning coffee'. Please have a look at http://hamachi.cc/security.

Alex (ap@hamachi.cc)

Anyone seen this before?: http://www.hamachi.cc/

Loos like a better way of doing VPN.. though ssh with in built vpn is going to be nice...

Here's my not so humble opinion about Hamachi:

Software review: Hamachi

In short: some good, some bad, some really great, some horrible.

Anyone seen this before?:
http://www.hamachi.cc/

Loos like a better way of doing VPN.. though ssh with in built vpn is going to be nice...

Use hamachi and run VoIP over it.

these days hamachi does that job pretty well.

Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual networking application enabling secure direct communications between any two computers on the Internet regardless of the presence of firewalls or address translation devices on the route between them. In particular, it can create true peer-to-peer network between two computers each residing behind its own broadband router.

In its canonical implementation it works in roughly 80% of cases where it can be applied.

It may sound like a lot, but it's not - it's 1 out 5 failure rate.

And while it is possible to get it to nearly 100%, hole-punching is still far from being mainstream technology.

... it's not a videoconferencing software, but it sets up vpn groups. every client get's an own additional ip and the software got around every firewall/nat I used it. plus the streams are encrypted and transfered via p2p.

give it a try: http://www.hamachi.cc/

and use your prefered video conferencing software with it.

I am currently streaming my music from my office machine to my home computer. both behind firewalls and routers.

btw. it's windows only.

it won't be able to traverse symetrical firewalls

Some systems can and not just with VoIP traffic.

NAT is a real menace

Yes, but true peer to peer is still possible in many
cases with a little help from a routable 3rd party -

Meet the mediated peer-to-peer a.k.a. hamachi

Saw this a couple of days ago. Pretty vague description,
but it does promise exactly what you are looking for. 2c.