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Re: [Openvpn-users] Working FreeBSD/XP bridge configs? (+ a "Doc rant" comment)


  • Subject: Re: [Openvpn-users] Working FreeBSD/XP bridge configs? (+ a "Doc rant" comment)
  • From: Jim Carter <jimc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:16:35 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, J. Perkins wrote:
> Raise your hand if you're using Ethernet bridging on FreeBSD!

OpenVPN on Linux <-> WinXP.  

> But I'm a little hazy as to what my bridge is actually called (all the
> Linux stuff refers to 'br0'), and also as to if 'ifconfig' is
> appropriate, given that I have a DHCP server on the remote side. I've
> read the docs several times, and I'm just really feeling dejected
> because I can't get beyond "test_routes: 0/0 succeeded" no matter what
> I try.

On Linux, "ifconfig -a" would spit out data for all interfaces and it's 
likely that the bridge endpoint would be among them even though it's not a 
"normal" NIC.  You do have to do "ifconfig eth1 up" with no IP address or 
an address of 0.0.0.0, before you can broadcast out of it.  The local DHCP 
client should do this by itself, except if a bridge is involved some 
special magic almost certainly is involved, that I have no experience with.

I'm a little puzzled why people are messing with bridging at all.  As I 
understand it, the only thing you get is Network Neighborhood, which relies 
on broadcasts.  I may be atypical as a Windows "sysop", but due to security 
needs on my home office system I have serious firewall rules on all 
systems including the XP machine, and it has trouble to see even itself in 
Network Neighborhood, not to mention the Samba server.  So, projecting my 
situation on other people, Network Neighborhood wouldn't work even if you 
did get bridging working (with my firewall rules), so why mess with 
bridging?

As for DHCP, I'm very successfully using the address pool feature of
OpenVPN-2.0beta$N, so I don't need the DHCP at the other end; specifically
I don't need broadcast connectivity for that.

I did think of one area where broadcasts are useful: IPP printer
announcements.  On Linux you could order your IPP (cups) client to poll a
specified server rather than relying on broadcasts, but I don't know if
there's a Windows option for this.  I've never actually tried to print
anything on a work printer when I'm home, or the home printer when I'm at
work...

So I exclusively use tunneling.  Here's my user support page for OpenVPN, 
including links to my config files for Windows and Linux clients and my 
server.

    http://www.math.ucla.edu/computing/openvpn/index.html

I hope this is a little bit helpful in your situation.

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)

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