The technique described in this HOWTO uses PPP to convert packets
into a character stream and SSH to encrypt it
and transmit it to the remote computer. Most system administrators
are well acquainted with the tools and configuration files needed
to set up a PPP-SSH VPN.
While it works well with moderate loads over a reliable
connection, be warned that a PPP-SSH VPN is subject to
some scalability problems. I've included a list of benefits in
Section 2.1 and drawbacks in
Section 2.2 so you can decide
for yourself if a PPP-SSH VPN is a good fit for your needs.
Copyright © 2001 Scott Bronson. This document may be distributed
under the terms set forth in the GNU Free Documentation License.
A copy of this license can be found at
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html.
You use the information in this document entirely at your own risk.
I especially make no guarantees as to the legality or cryptographic strength
of the techniques described here.
If you feel that you cannot take full responsibility
for your setup, then you need to put
down this HOWTO and hire one of the many excellent companies who
provide accountable, professional VPN service.
I took some notes as I adapted Bart Trojanowski's excellent
instructions to a newer version of PPP running on
my Debian system.
A few weeks later, I converted the notes into SGML.
Eventually, those evolved into this HOWTO.
Bart's instructions were based on Arpad Magosanyi's
good but now fairly dated
VPN Mini-HOWTO.
If you run into troubles and my document doesn't seem to help,
or if you're running an older version of the Linux kernel or PPP,
you'll definitely want to give his HOWTO a read.
Free eBook: 
