How safe are VPN's? Virtual Private Networks

impecunious

My son wishes to install Hamachi, a Virtual Private Network, for gaming purposes. I have had a quick look on the net regarding the security aspect, as all our pcs are on one network at home. I am still a bit confused. I would appreciate if other members who have knowledege of this VPN would comment.

TIA

albertross_2

Why does he need a vpn?

Who is on the other end, a friend?

A vpn will attach your PCs on your network, to another network, so if you do that make sure your firewalls are on, and systems patched and AV protected.

impecunious

Thanks for your reply. I agree with your response: you have to be careful who is on the other end. It is not only a friend of his, but also random people who he has no idea of. From what I read of Hamachi, you have to disable your firewalls to allow it work.

BertieLutton

Hi,

I have VPN set up to allow me to connect from my machine at work to another machine in another building as if it was in the same room as myself.

This is means that both machines have access to each other and any shared files like a normal networked machine.

Firstly you should NOT need to disable the firewall, just create a special rule to allow the VPN to get through. You may also need to do this on your router (slightly more complicated)

Secondly, does he really need to do this? I can't think of any games that would require this!

Lastly if he does need to do it, and you go ahead and allow it through your fire walls, you need to make sure that the shared folders on your machine are read only (the user on the other end can't add files). Furthermore make sure there is nothing in the shared folders that you don't want other people to see.

Hope this helps

Bertie

albertross_2

Just googled it, and it appears that it is a gaming practice, but one I don't understand the point of. Encryption is more likely to slow things down.

I thought hamachi bypassed all the firewall and portforwarding issues, but even if it doesn't, you can leave the software firewall in place on non gaming pc's

Personally, I wouldn't want all and sundry connecting to my internal network.

student100

While I've never used Hamachi I've heard good things about it, and it's been recommended by several industry security experts. e.g. see the Wikipedia article.