Connecting to a VPN server through another VPN server

Question

My question is strange, but once you understand my meaning you'll know why I asked.

I work at a web development/hosting company and we have dedicated servers hosted by a third party in Dallas somewhere. At our office, we just use the internet that is provided by the building, an internet connection that was included with our lease. We don't have access to the main router, so we can't open any ports. It's really fine; we don't really NEED any more than what was provided.

Recently my bosses asked if I could set up a VPN so we can connect from our homes. Our office has shared storage and all usernames/passwords/data on all of the websites we host, so it would be useful to have access to all of that. Set up a VPN? Not a problem, I've set up a billion VPN's in the past. But we don't have any open ports, and we have no way to open them, since we don't have access to the router. So I've been thinking of a way to make the VPN happen for a while, and what I came up with was to put a VPN server on our dedicated hosting servers in Dallas, connect with a Linux computer at the office, and then we can connect to the Dallas VPN server from our homes. After connecting to our Dallas VPN, we'll have access to the IP of the office's VPN server.

Is it possible to connect to the office VPN through the Dallas VPN? If there's a more efficient way with less overhead, I'd love to hear about it. Do you have any suggestions?

Solution

Install OpenVpn on the server. Setup a linux client at the office and configure it to expose its local network through the vpn. Now you can connect with openvpn from home and trafic to the office network will route through openvpn. No need for double vpn's. Also, Im sure you can do similar with other vpn's, but OpenVpn I know and it is free.

Comments

[Kinnectus]

I'm not sure this question fits within the scope of what this service provides because you are, essentially, asking a question that can only be answered by the owner of the building router/network. Without knowing what ports are open INbound it is impossible to know what solution to use.

[jww]

The proposed solution should work. It is called an intrasite VPN. It is often used to linkup geographically dispersed locations, like between Office and Dallas. Home users connect at Dallas, and once authenticated they can access Office. Linux kernel just added WireGuard so you may be able to use, too.

[Blaizz]

about OpenVPN: OpenVPN is an application to securely tunnel IP networks over a single UDP or TCP port. It can be used to access remote sites, make secure point-to-point connections, enhance wireless security, etc. OpenVPN uses all of the encryption, authentication, and certification features provided by the OpenSSL library (any cipher, key size, or HMAC digest). OpenVPN may use static, pre-shared keys or TLS-based dynamic key exchange. It also supports VPNs with dynamic endpoints (DHCP or dial-up clients), tunnels over NAT or connection-oriented stateful firewalls (such as Linux's iptables).

[Katushai]

Ok. Thanks for the help. I've always used PPTPD. Do you know if there's a term for what i'll be doing with it?

[Katushai]

also, is this possible without opening any ports? because thats the problem. i have no ports open.

[Mattias Åslund]

@Deathstalker Just stop using pptpd. It has poor security and some routing issues. It is simple to install for road warriors though, so I guess it has some use..

[Mattias Åslund]

@Deathstalker If you setup the OpenVpn server on your cloud machine, your office will be a client and needs no open ports. Other clients will still be able to route to the office if correctly configured.

[Mattias Åslund]

@Deathstalker If you want a quote for setting it up you can contact me through my profile. Otherwise I wish you good luck.

[UserZer0]

I apologize for the necromancy here, but I would love to have the details for getting an openvpn connection to expose the local network to the openvpn server. I have an openwrt router at home connected to my openvpn server, and I've been trying to figure out how to do just that so I can connect other networks back to my home network by connecting to my openvpn server .

[Mattias Åslund]

@UserZer0; here is one link where they discuss how to set it up in detail: forums.openvpn.net/viewtopic.php?t=21976