IPCop and DynDNS behind NATing DSL modem

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2006-03-08 at 21:49 -0700, Eric "Shubes" wrote:
> I'm trying to set up a VPN between two IPCop boxen. Fairly trivial, 
> usually. Both IPCops are connected to DSL (one home, one office), and 
> have dynamic IP addresses. No problem, DynDNS to the rescue.
> 
> DynDNS works fine on the home side, as the 'DSL gateway' gives the IPCop 
> box the public address. Not so at work. There, DSL is provided by an 
> ActionTec modem/router that does NAT to the (IPCop) local network. As 
> such, IPCop updates DynDNS with its private, non-routable address. 
> Little good that does me. :(
> 
> (FWIW, I already had a CIPE tunnel working before I had IPCops at each 
> end. Dynamic IPs was a problem though. Now that there is IPCop on both 
> ends, I'd like to use the DDNS and VPN capabilities of IPCop.)
> 
> Question is: what's the best way to get a VPN working in this situation?
> Some answers that come to mind:
> 
> A1) a plain vanilla DSL modem that will give the (dynamic) public 
> address to IPCop's red interface.
> KevinB, are you there? Are using the Cisco 67x I sold you? ;)
> 
> A2) a way to configure the ActionTec to do the same.
> I'm not sure about the capabilities of this puppy. It has a bridging 
> mode. Can I use that with PPPoA and a dynamic WAN address?
> 
> A3) install a DynDNS client on a machine inside the LAN (or on the 
> IPCop) which will update DynDNS with the appropriate external IP 
> address, and configure ActionTec to be an end of the VPN tunnel (not 
> sure how that'd play w/ IPCop on the other end).
> 
> Any thoughts are (as always) greatly appreciated.
----
Where I have run into that (and I think I have only run into it once), I
have had the customer pay Qwest the $15 per month for the fixed ip
addresses and use the ActionTec in bridging mode and then I can deal
with IPSEC VPN no sweat. If I am going to take the time to set up a VPN,
I really don't want to futz with DHCP/DynDNS ends and pull my hair out.

That's me - if I can buy peace of mind for a few bucks each month, then
I am happy. My understanding is that a lot of the companies that provide
DSL like Deru, will give you fixed ip addresses at no extra charge.

But to answer your question about the ActionTec and bridging mode...as I
recall, that wasn't a 'wizard' option but the web interface has all
sorts of options and yes, I used bridging and PPPoA, though as I recall,
Qwest tech support is kind of iffy in terms of helping with that type of
a setup.

Craig