Simple VPN Setup for office access

Pulsedriver · 5 Jul 2012 at 23:46

Hey guys,

Im looking to setup a VPN so I can connect to the office from home, and access shared folders and run a couple of programs that can only be run on the office network.

I was thinking at first about the built in Win7 VPN client but not sure if something like Hamachi or OpenVPN would be a better option?

There is probably about 2 or 3 of us who would eventually want to use remote access, logmein & similar programs are of no use as we don't want to worry about others walking past the screen and seeing sensitive company data!

I figure the likes of Hamachi, OpenVPN etc would still require a 'PC' that is in the office? We actually don't have a file server, we use a desktop PC as a share, but that does get used from time to time by a user as well, and our programs are ran off a separate Unix box in the LAN.

Guess you could say, low-cost is the best solution here! I may look at whether the router has a built in VPN, as that would probably solve most issues do you think?

Thanks for your help in advance

Pulsedriver · 6 Jul 2012 at 14:59

no one?

Deleted member 77746 · 6 Jul 2012 at 16:05

The cloud.

DJMK4 · 6 Jul 2012 at 16:31

Hamachi VPN is generally good as a "simple click and go" VPN, works well enough without any back end configuring to set-up.

Pulsedriver · 6 Jul 2012 at 17:49

Hi DJMK4, with Hamachi, I take it it needs to be on a computer that's based in the office?

Does it affect it in any way, so for example, if we put it on our receptionist's PC, then I dial into Hamachi from home and start accessing shared drives / loading programs on the network, will it slow the receptionist's PC down? Or not be noticed? Is it a silent install - ie do they know when we are logging in and out via their PC with Hamachi?

Kind regards,

DJMK4 · 6 Jul 2012 at 19:23

Pulsedriver said:
Hi DJMK4, with Hamachi, I take it it needs to be on a computer that's based in the office?

Does it affect it in any way, so for example, if we put it on our receptionist's PC, then I dial into Hamachi from home and start accessing shared drives / loading programs on the network, will it slow the receptionist's PC down? Or not be noticed? Is it a silent install - ie do they know when we are logging in and out via their PC with Hamachi?

Kind regards,

Hi there, I will try and answer fully, I only used it briefly, but whilst I did it did the job ok, obviously like with any VPN you will be limited by the upload at the other end if you are transferring files across.

You set-up a Hamachi account through their website, then create a network, then you have tools on their website to either send the client to someone via email or you can just download from the machine, install one client at one end, then on the other machine do the same, install the client, should ask you for any login details etc and it will see your network, then essentially all it does is assign some virtual It's and away you go.

Its quite a lightweight client, if you have used logmein123 for remote control of a machine its made by the same people if I remember correctly.

One thing I will say though is sometimes you may have the "odd" problem when you are travelling to and from networks, say for instance you are on a laptop, take in to work connect over VPN blah de blah come home, try and get on your wireless network at home, I found my hamachi client sometimes acted a bit funny with my WLAN adaptor on my laptop so I couldnt get on my home WLAN on a couple of occasions, had to disable/re-enable and do an ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew

Maybe someone else can give some insight as I only used it for a few days, but generally heard good things about it being a good simple way to VPN.