AlmostVPN - 1.6 pre

Even though I do know how to do this by hand, and would have no trouble doing any of the operations done by AlmostVPN manually, I still use this every day and find it invaluable, especially when traveling. By patiently reading the documentation (which does exist, despite the previous comment), I have set it up so that anywhere I go, I can have essentially the same connectivity to file servers, mail sending and receiving functionality, and secure access even to unsecured POP servers, etc., by connecting via ssh to accounts on the opposite side of whatever firewalls I happen to encounter. The true value of this utility is in making multiple such connections fast, and the extra handy capability to work seamlessly with mail servers without having to change port numbers, etc., is a true bonus.

Usage hint: Remember to shut down your almostVPN connections before sleeping your computer or moving to a new destination. If you forget to do this, sometimes it is necessary to cycle the almostVPN server off and on a couple of times to clear stray old connections when you start it back up in the new location.

Caveat: I haven't used this with Leopard yet, but am looking forward to doing so. It has worked perfectly for me for nearly 2 years on Tiger, modulo the above usage hint. Any comments from Leopard users?

Thank you for your patience

Andrei Tchijov
Leaping Bytes, LLC

I've used the original AVPN 0.9 revisions for some time ; the interface for that was almost as complicated as using the command line to set up a tunnel (I had to refer to the ssh man page to configure it), but the autostart features were handy.

With the AVPN Pro, it is now arguably MORE complicated to try and use this than to use a command line. Much feature support has been added for additional service types, making the UI even less comprehensible than before. I'm talking about configuring a simple ssh tunnel for a VNC connection.

Also not helping is that the import of config from AVPN apparently doesn't work. My working AVPN config does not start in AVPN Pro, it appears to be attempting a password login even though I have it configured to use an id_dsa file. I also got a hard crash duplicating, and then deleting an existing configuration.

Went back to 0.9.x.

Just a data point, but I've been amazed by the responsiveness of this company to questions and even a request for an improvement. I asked for incorporation of one-time-password support and received it within a few days.

Just set it up today ... WOW. This gives me the VPN I have always wanted. Setup required some solid SSH knowledge, but fortunately I work with people who are smarter than me. Only downside was that we had to populate a DNS list w/in the program instead of using the Host's DNS.