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Re: [LUG] VPNs

 

Philip Radford wrote:
> 
> We have an application which uses a socket to send data between two
> networks.
> 
> Trouble is the data is plain text and therefore the packets can be
> intercepted and read. I believe a VPN will get around this issue.

Almost certainly for very small specific applications such as this, you
might find that openssh can be used, or one of the derivative tools from
openssl (stunnel, sslwrap).

Here is an openssh example;

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0312lurie/

Obviously you need to think about how to use this in anger, but it shows
the principal.

VPN's are fine, but doing it right is still pretty complex, especially
if you just need a "tactical" solution for one issue or application.

Of course if these sites share a lot of traffic which is likely to be
unencrypted (and this matters), you might prefer a 'proper' VPN solution.

Personally I tend to prefer protocols that "do it right", at least
encrypting authentication data (even if I have to tunnel them to get the
encryption - stunnel is my friend).

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