[jderosa3]

I finally have gotten my Router to properly work with my DynDns account for FTP... well actually a Web FTP application (Rumpus) - working great!

Now I want to setup a VPN with my server so when I am out of the house I can access my network... and do screen sharing (not a priority if I cannot do that - I can use remote desktop...) and ical service...

Is there are good guides on this... the apple help topics are sparse. Anyone have any tips on setting this up with a dynamic IP... as I said I have a dyndns host name that my router updates and it seems to work quite well.

I have the VPN service active on my server and I have forwarded the ports: 500, 1701, 4500 to my server machine...

By the way my ISP said they block anything below port 1024... although I thought port 1701 was reapp what I need to actually connect outside... am I wrong here...

What next?

Thanks for any tips...

[Cold Warrior]

I find it suspect that your ISP would block anything in the assigned port range (those up to and including 1023). This would block almost your entire Internet experience.

I found these instructions when searching for VPN information on my Mac with Leopard:

Originally Posted by Article in Leopard

Setting up a connection to a virtual private network
In order to connect to a virtual private network (VPN) you need to enter configuration settings into Network preferences. These settings include the VPN server address, account name, and any authentication settings, such as a password or a certificate you were given by the administrator of the network.

If you were given a VPN settings file, try double-clicking the file to open Network preferences and automatically import the settings. If double-clicking the file doesn’t open Network preferences, open Network preferences (choose Apple > System Preferences and click Network), and then choose Import Configurations from the Actions menu. Select the file and click Import.

To manually set up a VPN connection:

Choose Apple > System Preferences, and then click Network.

Click Add (+) at the bottom of the network connection services list, and then choose VPN from the Interface pop-up menu.

Choose what kind of VPN connection you want to set up from the VPN Type pop-up menu, depending on the network you are connecting to, and give the VPN service a name.

Enter the server address and the account name for the VPN connection.

Click Authentication Settings, and enter the user authentication information you were given by the network administrator.

After entering the user authentication information, click OK, and then click Connect.

Select “Show VPN status in menu bar” to use the VPN status icon to connect to the network and switch between VPN services.

To remove the VPN configuration, select the VPN network connection service in the list and click Delete (-).

[Cold Warrior]

I've been doing a crude VPN recently because I don't have Leopard Server. I have SSH running on my Apple TV. What I do is ssh -D 1080 user@1.2.3.4 to bind the SOCKS proxy port to SSH. Then in my Network prefs I enable the SOCKS proxy w/ server localhost. Now everything I do goes right to the Apple TV and I'm on my network (although I have yet to check that I can see everything on my LAN at home).

[Simon]

You don't need VPN. Just regular ssh forwarding.

You set up your router so it forwards port 22 (ssh) calls to a Mac on your home network. You set up DNSUpdate on your home Mac so your home Mac's external IP address is always tied to your DynDNS name.

Then from a remote Mac you can open up an ssh tunnel to to your home Mac. It will be something like
ssh me@homeMac.dyndns.org -Lxxx:homeMac.dyndns.org:xxx
where xxx ist the port you're trying to forward. You can also define a local forward in your ~/.ssh/config file to forward multiple ports over one connection.

For screen sharing you make sure you forward 5900 and then just enter localhost as the server in your VNC client. For file sharing over AFP it's 548, and for iCal IIRC it's 8008 and 8443.