Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:22:18 +0200 From: Lapo Luchini <lapo@lapo.it> To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: why an Hamachi port? yet another VPN? Message-ID: <46E06F8A.9000206@lapo.it>
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Why would an Hamachi port be useful for FreeBSD? What is it Hamachi exactly? Hamachi is a software that permits to build VPNs (or something close to that) very easily to kinda everyone, it is obviously more limited in use that the wealth of existing FreeBSD ports that do similiar things (openvpn, ssh itself, the upcoming magic tunnel, and more...) but IMHO definitely with a lower learning curve. It is closed source (but free, with a very good subset of the features of the $$$ version). On Windows it has a quite appealing GUI that resembles something closer to an instant messenger than a VPN. Why is that important at all? Well... for the simple reason that once in a while I needed to have a private connection with some friend that would simply refuse to hear me if I pronounced words such as "tunnel", "server", "vpn" or the such. And it is in fact quite handy in his server-assisted approach to open VPNs with both ends behind a NAT (of course at least one of the two must associate the port to the client, and not mind the source ip). On the first login, every installation is given a unique IP address local to the reserved 5.0.0.0/8 range. Every user can create a "network" with some "friends" (peers, whatever) simply creating it in the software and sharing the access password to it. Once the network is created and people has joined You have "virtual networks" of "friends" (peers, whatever). Every peer in the same network can seamlessly send IP packets to any other one, just using their 5.x.y.z address. Peer-2-peer tunnels are opened on-the-fly, data is AES encrypted after a RSA-based server-assisted handshake is done and other things you can read in more detail on the official website: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/security.asp Hamachi has both Linux and OSX official packages. So far, they did not create a FreeBSD one, but on the official forum some developer said they could consider it. (And probably an existing port could help that decision.) Hamachi runs with user privileges, but requires a root-executed daemon to assist him creating tun devices called tuncfg. Hamachi works on FreeBSD, using the Linux binary and a patched tuncfg mostly inspired to the one found in the OSX package. Moreover, this works has already been done, and yours truly also prepared a port to automate it. The only thing lacking is someone interested in it enough to give me feedback on the PR ports/112982. Come on, people, that PR has been sitting there six months already. ;-) -- Lapo Luchini lapo@lapo.it (OpenPGP & X.509) www.lapo.it (Jabber, ICQ, MSN)
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