Re: free ipsec client?

Mathew,
Thank you very much for you excellent response. The insight was
very helpful. I think I found a solution to go around what I was
originally try to accomplish by using ipsec. To fill in the missing details
however, I should say that I had a hardware firewall that offered ipsec
server functions, but had user workstations behind small home-class routers
that I wanted to connect up to the hardware firewall. I am going to
bypass this entirely now at this time. But thanks so much for your help!

Sincerely,
Joe.


"Matthew X. Economou" <xenophon+usenet@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uejhl5cq0.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Joe" == Joe Letter <nojunk@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Joe> I am wondering if anyone knows of a free ipsec client that
Joe> can be installed on an xp/vista client workstation.

The only free Windows IPSEC implementation of which I'm aware (beyond
the built-in client) is PGPnet, for Windows 2000. It's not compatible
with anything else, and it's no longer available for download.

VPN concentrators from vendors such as Cisco, Watchguard, Nortel,
etc. should come with client software compatible with those vendors'
devices. You will need a current support contract in order to obtain
client software compatible with Windows Vista. For Cisco, you'll need
the most recent release of the Cisco VPN client (version 5.0.something
- I forget which build it is, exactly). If I recall correctly,
authentication with a username and password requires vendor-specific
extensions to the IKE protocol, so you can't use the built-in IPSEC
client with that authentication method - you'll have to use pre-shared
keys or X.509 certificates.

If you're looking to interoperate with a free IPSEC implementation
such as those found on Linux or BSD UNIX, you should give up now and
install something else. While the Windows and Linux/BSD IPSEC stacks
interoperate, configuring them is an exercise in tedium, frustration,
and poor documentation. OpenVPN is a personal favorite: it runs on
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and BSD UNIX. I think it is very easy to
configure, especially compared to IPSEC. I've also heard that it's
possible to set up an L2TP/IPSEC server on Linux (just like it's
possible to run a PPTP server on Linux), but I haven't tried it and I
don't know how well it is documented.

Of course, without additional details from you regarding your business
requirements or implementation goals, I can't be more specific.

Best wishes,
Matthew

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