From 28491b2304e4f4223817a3c4ba37d5db97e49663 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dennis Schwerdel <schwerdel@informatik.uni-kl.de>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 15:51:04 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Point-to-point tutorial

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+# Point-to-Point Tutorial
+
+## Goals
+* Connect several single nodes via a VPN
+* Nodes should be able to reach each others even through NATs
+* Traffic should be secured with a password
+* Nodes should be accessible by IP addresses and names like `NODE.myvpn`
+
+
+## Preparations
+To be able to set up the VPN, at least one node needs to be reachable by an
+unchanging address of hostname. This is normally not the case with common
+DSL uplinks (they change addresses every day).
+To mitigate this problem and get a fixed hostname, there are services called
+dynamic DNS or short DDNS. There are lots of [different DDNS services][1], some
+are free, some cost money.
+Most of those services provide a common API that can be used by freely available
+tools to update the address whenever it changes. Mainstream DSL routers have
+built-in clients for this API so nothing has to be installed to set up DDNS.
+
+Besides this unchanging address, a port has to be opened for VpnCloud. This has
+to be done in the settings of the DSL router. The default port for VpnCloud
+is 3210. This process is different for every router but it usually can be found
+under the name of "Port forwarding" or "Exposed ports" (not "exposed host").
+
+[1]: http://dnslookup.me/dynamic-dns/
+
+
+## Setup
+The actual VpnCloud setup is pretty simple.
+
+A new network config in `/etc/vpncloud` has to be created on each node.
+There is an example file to start with in `/etc/vpncloud/example.net`.
+
+    $> sudo cp /etc/vpncloud/example.net /etc/vpncloud/mynet.net
+
+Now that file has to edited to change a few values:
+
+    $> sudo nano /etc/vpncloud/mynet.net
+
+The following values have to be modified:
+
+- **PEERS**: This is a list of all peers that this node should connect to.
+  Only unchanging addresses can be used here. Several addresses can be appended
+  and separated by spaces like `"node1.dyndns.org:3210 node2.dyndns.org:3210"`.
+  All nodes that have an unchanging address should be listed here.
+
+- **SHARED_KEY**: This is a shared password for all nodes that secures the
+  communication. It must be the same on all nodes and of course it should be a
+  strong password.
+
+- **IFUP**: `ifconfig $IFNAME 10.0.0.X/24 mtu 1400` where `X` is different for
+  every node. It is good idea to use incrementing numbers here and to track the
+  assigned numbers and nodes in a list.
+
+- **ENABLED**: This needs to be set to `1` when everything is finished so the
+  network is started automatically.
+
+After the config file has been set up correctly, VpnCloud needs to be restarted:
+
+    $> sudo /etc/init.d/vpncloud restart
+
+Finally, on each host the names of the nodes should by associated with their
+address. This can be done by editing `/etc/hosts`:
+
+    $> sudo nano /etc/hosts
+
+For each node a line with `NAME.myvpn 10.0.0.X` needs to be added.
+
+
+## Testing the network
+When everything has been setup properly, the connection can be checked using the
+`ping` command:
+
+    $> ping NAME.myvpn