At school, we can't use bit torrent at all. So I want to set up VPN on my dell winxp box at home and download torrents from there and then just upload them to my Macbook pro (using leopard at school). How do I go about doing this?
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Want to set up VPN for downloading torrents at home
- Thread starter thadoggfather
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All ports are blocked, and .torrent extensions are banned. Assuming I could even find a workaround, my U would be able to pick it up easily. I'd rather download at home and send it over from there.
Check out OpenVPN. It is easy to setup and you should be able to do it on any server and client OSes - Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X.
Basically you install the server on your WinXP box - create a static key (follow the documentation) and fill in some configuration details and start the server. Copy over the static key and config details to your MacBook and run the client with those settings from there. Be sure to use SSL port 443 on the Server so that you can even use a HTTP Proxy server on the client and you don't have to be worried about blocked ports.
You will have to open up the 443 port on your router (if you have one) and make it pass thru to your WinXP box. That's about it.
Yep - it sure is easy for the static key configuration. Just follow what I wrote in earlier post and write back if you get stuck.
If you don't mind me asking, what school is it that's so serious about blocking torrents?
Rest is easy -
Server Setup on XP -
1) Create a static key.
Locate the OpenVPN.exe in your XP Setup - C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\bin if you installed at default location.
Open a command prompt and go to that directory and execute below command -
Copy the generated static.key to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config and also over to your Mac using may be a USB drive.
2) Create Server Configuration file
Create a new file with Notepad or your favorite editor with name server.ovpn - remember Notepad saves files with .txt unless you choose "All Files" in file type.
Enter the below contents
Copy the above server.ovpn to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config directory on the XP machine.
4) Generate a Client config
Create a new file client.ovpn on your mac using Text Edit and enter below contents -
Copy the above file and the static.key to /Library/openvpn/ on the Mac.
Lastly start the server on the XP using the OpenVPN GUI and start the client on Mac using Tunnelblick.
Also make sure you allow the port 443 on XP server is reachable from the internet - check the port forwarding setting on your router. And keep the static.key secure - generate and copy new one to both client and server if you lose it.
More help here
Server Setup on XP -
1) Create a static key.
Locate the OpenVPN.exe in your XP Setup - C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\bin if you installed at default location.
Open a command prompt and go to that directory and execute below command -
Code:
openvpn --genkey --secret static.keyCopy the generated static.key to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config and also over to your Mac using may be a USB drive.
2) Create Server Configuration file
Create a new file with Notepad or your favorite editor with name server.ovpn - remember Notepad saves files with .txt unless you choose "All Files" in file type.
Enter the below contents
Code:
dev tun
ifconfig 10.8.0.1 10.8.0.2
secret static.key
comp-lzo
proto tcp-server
port 443Copy the above server.ovpn to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config directory on the XP machine.
4) Generate a Client config
Create a new file client.ovpn on your mac using Text Edit and enter below contents -
Code:
remote <Public domain name or IP Address of XP Machine>
dev tun
ifconfig 10.8.0.2 10.8.0.1
secret static.key
#The IP Address and netmask below should match your home network
route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
keepalive 10 60
ping-timer-rem
persist-tun
persist-key
comp-lzo
proto tcp-client
port 443Copy the above file and the static.key to /Library/openvpn/ on the Mac.
Lastly start the server on the XP using the OpenVPN GUI and start the client on Mac using Tunnelblick.
Also make sure you allow the port 443 on XP server is reachable from the internet - check the port forwarding setting on your router. And keep the static.key secure - generate and copy new one to both client and server if you lose it.
More help here
remote <Public domain name or IP Address of XP Machine> <--- the ip assigned to my computer by the router or the general IP (that I can look up by goign to ipchicken.com)?
route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 <--- i replace that with the router ip or the ip address assigned to my computer?
Edit: ok im connected. now how do i control my XP machine from my mac?
route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 <--- i replace that with the router ip or the ip address assigned to my computer?
Edit: ok im connected. now how do i control my XP machine from my mac?
What do you mean? I just want to be able to control my XP box from school and download torrents and transfer them over to my mbp because my school blocks .torrents and torrent traffic.
Download VNC Server for free from here - http://www.tightvnc.com/ . Install the server on the XP box, and then install CotVnc on the Mac. You will then be able to connect/control the XP box from the Mac after you are on the VPN.
remote desktop
remote desktop is all you need. Download the Remote desktop connection for mac from Microsoft's website, get the public IP of your windows machine, then make sure you have remote settings open. From school you can log in, and see your screen just as if you were sitting in front of it. Download things, then email or transfer however you want to do that.
remote desktop is all you need. Download the Remote desktop connection for mac from Microsoft's website, get the public IP of your windows machine, then make sure you have remote settings open. From school you can log in, and see your screen just as if you were sitting in front of it. Download things, then email or transfer however you want to do that.
Not all XP editions have the "server portion" of the Remote Desktop - especially the case with XP Home.
TightVNC should be there as an icon in your XP system tray after reboot - click it and you will find a checkbox to enable sharing the display, display number (leave it at default :1 or :0) and password. On the Mac side - just start CotVNC and have it connect to xp_home_net_ip:1.
Also, make sure you actually set up your torrent client to ONLY download when it's running on vpn. Otherwise your connection might drop (which happens frequently on some vpn services), the client might reconnect on your insecure connection. If this can happen, you might as well not have bothered with the VPN.
I've written a post here which explains how you can set this up on a mac.
Hope it helps anybody who finds his way here.
edit: If I read the post right, OP is not actually anonymising his torrent download via VPN, so this might not apply. Still, might be interesting for people who find their way here via google.
I've written a post here which explains how you can set this up on a mac.
Hope it helps anybody who finds his way here.
edit: If I read the post right, OP is not actually anonymising his torrent download via VPN, so this might not apply. Still, might be interesting for people who find their way here via google.
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