CentOS as a Network bridge over WAN

Nefarious · 28 Jan 2009 at 06:16

If I have two seperate LAN networks, both with static IP WAN addresses, is it possible to setup a CentOS server as a way of bridging the two networks?

I remember reading somewhere that this was possible and the two servers would even compress the data being sent between eachother to increase speed of interchange. The two networks would effectively become different segments of the 'same' network.

Any documentation on this (or telling me that I dreamt the whole thing) would be appreciated.

Thanks

p.s. The other thing that I'm trying to find is a way to have a compressed partition. I'm trying to set up a live archive of data but it doesn't need fast access and wont be accessed very often so I wondered whether something like that was possible too. It is with other distributions but I'm new to CentOS.....

rick827 · 28 Jan 2009 at 08:40

There's various ways to do it, some more complex than others. Linux can be turned into a fully fledged router if you wish so basically anything is possible. A quick google turns up this linux, although i've not tried it myself: http://tomdeb.org/node/1181

.walls · 28 Jan 2009 at 12:41

Yip it's entirely possible. A healthy portion of home routers run linux kernels.

A quick google has yielded this:
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=18131

and further googling yields lots of results.

Nefarious · 30 Jan 2009 at 08:12

Thanks for the responses, but I think I may have been a little unclear as to what I meant. When I said the two networks were separate I mean they are physically distant from eachother with only the internet to connect them. All the google hits I've come across are to do with ethernet setups not the ethernet bridging via WAN that I'm after.

Thanks, sorry for being unclear.

Just looked at the link to XORP - I'm sure their software is great but the description reads like a broschure rather than an accurate description. I was left thinking 'wow, that sounds great! I wonder what it actually does....?'

Nefarious · 30 Jan 2009 at 08:41

Looks like what I was after was a virtual tunnel (I think) I'm still researching but I'm not finding anything with the over internet compression that I'm sure I read about.

edit: Aha, think I've found it http://fr.rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/sourceforge/v/vt/vtun/vtun-3.0.2-1.i386.html

further edit: I'm still looking for a good vtun tutorial, any help would be appreciated.....

slylittlefox · 31 Jan 2009 at 02:33

From what you've said you want a VPN between the two networks? That is, they both behave like there on the same network, with any traffic between the two LANs being tunnelled over the internet.

Google OpenVPN - though someone may be able to advise on its suitability. What I mean by that is that something like tinc could be more suitable for a point-to-point VPN (rather than a LAN-to-client setup, which is what we use OpenVPN for).

Google beginners guide openvpn and beginners guide tinc - one of the two will be what you need

Nefarious · 31 Jan 2009 at 04:36

Exactly, I've been trying to use vtun with no success (took it down to following basic instructions to the letter which didn't work so think there may be something wrong with my system setup rather than the vtun config files).

The idea is for the servers to act as gateways and bridge the two networks with a VPN style connection. The reason why I liked the look of vtun was that it seemed to offer fairly good compression and would let me use SSH encryption.

I'll look at the ones you've suggested and where that gets me.

Ta!

*edit: Just checked tinc - seems to be pretty much the same deal as vtun, I'll let you know how I get on. The documentation is much more overt and readily available so I think we have a winner!