VPN Client tools?
The world needs more VPN client tools. It sounds like Cisco and
Ascend are venturing into this world. No doubt others are too.
I use "PPTP" from Microsoft currently for NT systems and "ssh"
and the commercial "F-Secure" product from DataFellows (www.datafellows.com)
for Unix. I really like ssh. I found PPTP to be ok, but it's rather
complex and required me to hack code to get my firewall to pass the
GRE encapsulated traffic. Obscure point: VPN technology that does
not use TCP or UDP protocols may not work with off-the-shelf firewalls
or routers. If the VPN protocol (like the new L2TP protocol) uses UDP,
it's reasonably easy to convince a firewall or router to pass it.
Don't ask why. It has to do with recognizing protocol headers and
the fact that TCP and UDP headers have similar structure.