FOSS app like Hamachi?

[Ben Scott]

On 2/13/07, Michael ODonnell <michael.odonnell at comcast.net> wrote:
> Anybody know of a FOSS app that provides the sort
> of remote access that Hamachi offers ...

  I don't really "get" the appeal of Hamachi.  I've encountered quite
a few people who seem to think it's doing something unique, but the
feature list seems like the standard list every VPN vendor claims they
do.  I also distrust anything that claims to be "zero configuration
secure network", since that's basically a contradiction in terms.
Sure, sounds like something we'd want, but so does "free money",
"perpetual motion machine", "everlasting gobstopper", etc.  Networks
are hard, security is hard, secure networks are hard squared.

  Anyhow... what are you actually trying to do?

  There's always SSH with port forwarding, proxy forwarding, and/or
tun forwarding.  Some combination of those is often ideal in the sense
that's is narrowly targeted but highly flexible.  Configuration can be
confusing if you don't know what to do, but that's true about just
about everything.  Assistance is available.

  There's stunnel if you just want to stuff some TCP connection into
an SSL pipe.

  I find OpenVPN works very well at providing a full IP-over-IP
tunnel.  It's based on SSL, NAT friendly, can run over TCP or UDP,
works with 'doze or 'nix, and generally seems to work.  You can use
simple peer certificates, or a full X.509 PKI.

  There's OpenS/WAN if you need IPsec.  Hopefully, you don't.

-- Ben