On Sun, 27 Dec 2020 18:04:03 +0000, Chris Green  declaimed the
following:

>
>Presumably I'd run the remote Pi (the one on the boat in France) as a
>VPN client and have the VPN server running on my home LAN somewhere.
>I have two Pis already on my home LAN, one of them is a Pi 4, would
>that be OK to run Open VPN server?
>

 From
https://www.infopackets.com/news/10404/explained-difference-between-vpn-server-
and-vpn-service
"""
A VPN server is nothing more than a software program than runs on your
office PC 24 hours a day, waiting for you (the VPN client) to connect to it
remotely.
"""

 Unless you want the remote system to continuously "phone home" to
access your home system, I suspect you need the server to be on the remote
R-Pi. It will sit, waiting for an inbound connection request from your home
system, so that you can then interact with ITS OS.

"""
Once the connection is made to the VPN server, you would have access to
your office PC files and other resources in the office - just as if you
were physically attached to your office network in person
"""

 Of course, that may mean having some sort of internet connection
active, with either a fixed-IP or via some dynamic DNS service (which gives
you a fixed domain name, which it then routes to whatever was the last IP#
provided it by the remote -- via some periodic daemon or cron job). And
requires open ports on the firewall and any router that may be in the way
(I suspect it will be the router that is a problem if using a cellular
module -- the cellular service providers expect the module to initiate
requests out to the internet, not to respond to requests coming in from the
internet).

 A VPN may not even be needed at this stage. Merely having an SSH server
accessible from outside would provide a command-line management interface.
In contrast, a VPN tends to provide an encrypted tunnel allowing the client
to "see" the remote machine as if it were a local display.




--
 Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
 wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

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