[MLB-WIRELESS] Using VPN's over Internet to link disparate Melbourne Wireless nodes ?

[Chris Samuel]

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Hi all,

I've been thinking about what sort of things could be done to make life a 
little easier for those geographically stranded.

It occured to me that using something like IPSEC VPN tunnels over the Internet 
could be a way to "join up" segments of the MW network that would not 
otherwise be able to link in for some time, if ever.

It could also stimulate growth of the network by providing an incentive to get 
involved in your "island" if it had a tunnel through to the MW backbone. Of 
course, if you get enough interest then you might be lucky enough to get that 
person to join who can bridge you out of your island and into the rest of the 
net!

Now, I'm very aware that this is only suitable for a small proportion of MW 
people in that you'd need to meet the following requirements to practically 
be able to do this:

1) A static IP address (doable if the person you want to link to is static, 
but both ends being static would be better).

2) A reasonably high speed connection (256K minimum), unlimited downloads.

3) The ability for both ends to rate-limit the tunnel to prevent it swamping 
ordinary Internet usage.

4) Firewalling to prevent use of apps that could swamp the rate limited link 
(file sharing for instance) - or could you rate-limit within the tunnel ? :-)

5) Something to run OSPF (zebra/quagga) to do the routing.

6) Both ends should be at least in testing state to have MW addresses 
allocated (preferably both operational!).


OK - I know this isn't perfect but I reckon it might be a good start.

Perhaps you'd want to limit the protocols that run over this to things like 
email, news, IRC, Jabber and web browsing..

It cold also provide handy backup links...

Oh, and as someone who's geographically challenged, if anyone wants to help me 
out and see if we can set something like this up I'd love to give it a try. 
:-)

cheers!
Chris
- -- 
 Chris Samuel  :  http://csamuel.org/  :  Melbourne, VIC

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