Extreme NooB

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FlipperBizkut

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 25, 2002
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From what I have read, I need to delve into the world of virtual machines. I am needing to be able to VPN into my school, but at the same time be able to use my internet (and my home network) as usual. From what I understand, this can be accomplished by installing a virtual machine and using it for the VPN connection, and that that will effectively allow my hosting computer to run as if the guest computer didn't even exist. Is that right? I need all the VPN traffic to go to the virtual machine, all the regular traffic to go to the host machine, and it would be perfect if the VPN goes down, for all that traffic to stop completely (or at least provide a warning or whatever). From the stuff I have read, this seems not only possible, but appears as if this is a pretty standard reason to use a VM. The problem is that everything I have read talks about people doing this, but provides no information about how to set this up.

Supposing that I have that part correct, I have downloaded VMwarePlayer, and installed it. In an attempt to create a new "system," it asked me about how I want to use the network adapter. I remember "bridge" being one of the options, but I am not sure which to choose to accomplish what it is that I am needing to do. Could one of you please help me out here? Thanks so much!
 
Bridge is fine for your purposes. I'm not really sure I understand what you mean about the VPN traffic halting all traffic when it goes down.

Are you familiar with the resource allocation options? Make sure you have enough RAM and CPU to even entertain this whole process, then make sure you allocate the correct amount of resources to the VM.
If you want a free VM app with more features check out Virtual Box. VMware products only go so far and can cost a lot depending on the features you want.
 
I assume he meant if&when you shutdown the VM the VPN software runs on, will the VPN traffic stop. Yes it will (unless doing something wacky.) Chances are a as ryang said, simple bridging is likely the best answer. ESXi or virtualbox should work fine for you.
 
OK cool. I only chose VMware because that is the one I always heard of when I heard people speaking of VMs in passing. I am by no means partial to any of the software out there, so if one is better than another, I would certainly like to know.

About the VPN... Basically, I want to start my VM, and on that VM start the VPN. I will want all traffic from the VM to go through the VPN. Now, should that VPN go down (the computer on the other end that I connect to), I wouldn't want my VM to decide to use my regular connection in place of going through the VPN. In other words, I would want all traffic to and from my VM to go through the VPN and only to go through the VPN. If the VPN is not available (for whatever reason), no traffic should be allowed.

Is that possible?
 
That's up to the vpn software. Some of them force all traffic thru the vpn when it's up, others allow only corporate traffic to go there and everything else goes the normal way.
 
Great. Thanks for the insight. If I have any issues after I get it set up, I'll post back.

Thanks again.
 
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