Hamachi - Experience

I have been looking at Hamachi to create a connection between my PC and Laptop when out.

Seems very good, but reading in the forums there appears to be a number of issues reported?
- Blue Screens of Death
- Complete loss of networks
- Not able to connect

Anybody on here with experience/knowledge of using it?

Many Thanks

Have been using it for about a week with none of the problems you mention - after I stopped assuming it wasn't working because I couldn't ping the test server! Apparently that server is vary rarely on line.

Cheers...

I have been looking through their forums.
I'm assuming you can stop/start it,
I want to connect my laptop via wireless @ home normal networking 192.xxx....

Then use it(Hamachi) to connect to my Desktop via WiFi from various locations.

I've been playing with it for about 6 months now. It doesn't seem to play nicely with Zone Alarm....But there again what does???

Otherwise it does what it should do. (if you turn off ZoneAlarm that is)

In reply to:

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Anybody on here with experience/knowledge of using it?

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I don't but I do have experience of running two types of VPN wihtout it. One is a permanent VPN which exists between two routers at different location - whenever both routers are on (and the Internet connections at each end are working) the networks at both ends are ope to each other.

The other is between an individual computer connected to the Internet which can connect to one of the routers and access all the machines on the network beyond it as if on the same local network.

In my case, this is easily achieved because the router offers a VPN server facility. If that is not present on your network, many (perhaps most) routers offer a VPN pass-through and if that is not available, you can use port forwarding to achieve the same thing to a particular machine on the network (though that machine must be on at the time).

I can't see what Hamachi would provide which I don't have already, or, even if I didn't have a VPN server on the router, could have with VPN bypass or port forwarding. Certainly the reported failings of Hamachi have never appeared here.

Hi,
Thanks for that...
I'm looking for something that's easy to set-up.. hopefully
But all comments noted.. I think

Thanks...

I noted here quite a few threads on Firewalls(inc Zone Alarm), but not Kerio

Edited by deleted (Sat 14-Oct-06 23:53:47)

I find it immensely valuable to have a router which incorporates a VPN server. I can establish the VPN between servers or from a remote machine to the server without having to worry about getting through the router and then the computer's firewall. (The point is that the remote machine has an IP local to the home network once the VPN is established, so it is just as easy for it ot communicate with any machine on the network as it is from a machine directly conntected to it).

My Vigor 2600 router has another very helpful feature - it includes a WOL command so, when I am away from home, I can use my laptop to connect to the Internet (BB or dial-up), establish the VPN and then wake up a computer at home - all that is necessary is to have the router on and connected and the computer connected to the mains but not on (it must, though, have a WOL enabled ethernet card).

As far as I can see, setting up a VPN and connecting to it is about as easy (or difficult, depending on your pov) as setting up any network connection. If you want specific guidance, PM me.

Hi,

Thanks for that...
What I'm looking to acheive is the simplest way to:

1. Connect to my PC in the home office from my Laptop when I'm out and about.
2. Connect from the Home Office PC to the wife's Laptop when she is out and about.

Hamachi appeared(on the surface) to be the simplest solution?

Thanks..

Remote Desktop??

Have a look at LogMeIn as well
http://www.logmein.com

Similar stuff to Hamachi

Hi Thanks..

I did look at at that...
But it appeared to look more involved when done over the internet than using Radmin which I already have,
and Hamachi.
I maybe wrong?

Hi Thanks...

I did look at that, but it works out about

Granted if you have more than one PC on the end of a connection with one IP address, it is a little tricky to perform multiple port forwards and listeners to the machines, but if your machines are XP, and you only have one at "home" then it is a single port forward on your router to the PC's IP. If (say) you wife/gf or whoever you mentioned is "out and about" she would send a remote assistance request to you without knowing anything about the local network architecture and assuming they are not pro-actively blocking the RDP traffic (which could well be the case with any of these web clients you are looking at too) then you can remote desktop her machine.

The problem comes when you are in a corporate environment as all the businesses we support start with a firewall list of no access, then have protocols allowed on the basis of need, rather than the home approach which tends to be allow everything. We also ensure all our corporate sites run a transparent proxy with authentication so odd-ball "over the web" apps don't get thru. We also have comprehesive URL/IP filter lists to prevent this kind of traffic too.
I appreciate its different if we are talking about a public wi-fi hotspot or similar.

I think RDP is definately worth a look as its free, and damn effective at its job.

In reply to:

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Hamachi appeared(on the surface) to be the simplest solution?

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It might be for situation 2. Whatever you do, you will have to find a way of contacting your wife when she is online and has an IP you either know or can discover. If Hamachi can achieve that miracle it would indeed be doing well (though if it merely does the same as the various proxies that are around, it wouldn't be doing anything very miraculous).

Why not let her do the contacting, in which case, it is exactly the same as the first case.

Contacting from outside your system by a VPN is about as simple as I think it could get just using standard features which are incorporated in Windows. (Note, none of this is Microsoft propriety, it exists in the real world and they appear to have implemented most of it well, though they have some big holes on the better security levels).

I operate Radmin over a VPN. I wouldn't use it instead of one and I do not see how it can establish one.

Thanks...

A bit more research in order I think

Thanks...
Maybe I misunderstould Hamachi?

I thought it creates a network for you, with each PC having a 5.x.x.x IP
Using Radmin, I thought I could just connect to the 5.x.x.x IP, like I do with the 192.x.x.x I do at home?

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-Oct-06 01:28:37)

Hi Thanks...

Still some reading for me to do...

O.K. on the Corporate world...
I appreciate some what different and more of a challenge.

The private ranges defined by RFC 1918 are:
10.0.0.0 --- 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 --- 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 --- 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

The DHCP service included with most routers can be configured to allocate local IP numbers in any of these. I don't think anyone other than IANA can allocate IPs in the 5.*.*.* range.

Hamachi does provide a proxy so that you could establish a VPN to your wife's laptop but if that were all you wanted from it, there are other ways (e.g. http://www.dns2go.com) but costs may not be negligible.

Hamachi would appear to have merit, but for a network of your size with one fixed IP base and two laptops, you ought to be able to achieve all you want using facilities already there. You say that you want to be able to connect from home to your wife's machine when she is out and about. That will be difficult if, as is likely, she is only intermittently connected and, even more likely, has dynamic IP. (Since only she knows when she is connected, it would make more sense in most cases to let her initiate the connection.)

One point in favour of hte Hamachi system is the use of Public Key Encryption which would be very helpful in setting up connections with larger numbers of unknown members. Encryption is easier (and possibly more secure) using symmetric keys which need to be entered into both machines - not difficult when they are in the same location at times,

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/vpn_setup2.html provides information on how to set up a "Remote worker" VPN but it relates to a Draytek router so will need additional information for your own, especially if it does not include a VPN server.

In reply to:

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O.K. on the Corporate world...

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It is not a question simply of being corporate, any home with a router has a network, even if it only has two devices on it (router and one computer). If you and your wife are both at home, you have a network with at least four devices - the router, your desktop and two laptops.

Our system has 9-10 devices on the immediately local network and another computer via a router and VPN about 80 miles away. This may be thought unusual, but what do you do with parents and a couple of kids who all need independent computing facilities? Having individual dial-up or broadband connections is a bit extravagant and do they all have their own printers?

I would suggest that the difference between domestic and corporate is one of scale and, because, having justified the expenditure, the money to do it right can be there, the challenge is at least as great in the domestic world where the pressure to cut costs (even at the expense of economy, efficiency and effectiveness) is greater.

Hi,

Many thanks for all the detail, all duly noted.
I don't think my router includes VPN option... BT2110

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and try it... Having backed up/imaged my PC

Hi,

Yes, my point about Corporate was about scale and risk vs cost
At home we have a few PC's and a 3 users.. vs 100K+ users at the last company I worked for.

*Update*

Decided to give Hamachi a try...
1 Desktop & 2 Laptops connected, all went without a hitch.
Only rules in Firewall: allow Hamachi to run, and add the 5.xx.yyy.zzz into trusted zone.
Did not have to open any ports, or do any forwarding of ports.. It just worked
According to www.grc.com "Sheilds Up" still fully stealthed on everything.

Desktop
Laptop
Laptop on Desktop via RADmin

With the Hamachi IP's being static, the Desktop/Laptop IP's can be Dynamic.
I'm happy, I will now get a license for RADmin