Re: OT: Connecting TWO homes

[Chuck Yerkes <chuck+obsd_(_at_)_2004_(_dot_)_snew_(_dot_)_com>]

Quoting STeve Andre' (andres_(_at_)_msu_(_dot_)_edu):
> > I and a friend would like to setup a VPN betweem our OBSD BOX.
Well, no.  You want to set up a PN, nothing virtual about it.

> > Our desire is to use two DSL modem for this purpose. The problem is that
> > i don't want the Telephony company to be aware about this, because if
> > so, they won't allow it for a very expensive charge.

Fine.  An alarm pair is what's needed.  I have met a couple folks
in Vt. who have this between their houses - one house has access
to a wireless network, the other is over the hill and can't...
Being enterprising, they identified a pair that was not in use,
found the punchdown and tagged it as an alarm pair.  Been there
for a while.

Hardly on the up and up, I wait until the phone co just runs
220VAX through it to see which houses explode.  But N.E. Telephone
(and most) are filled with low-motivation techs who just don't
care and understand that "doing it right" is sometimes impossible.

The CO is pretty damn far away, but there are local punchdowns
(wire concentrators - it's a non-intelligent breakout area, the
bottom of the hill has all the wires (and extras) going to the houses
and then the wires going to the CO).
 
> > The idea is to use the physical layer provide by the PHONE company and
WIRE.

> > add our communication layer above it (TCP/IP),
As well as adding everything that's above the WIRE.

> Something to consider might be a point-to-point wireless link.  I have zero
> idea what the wireless laws are where you are, but if you are close, say less
> than 10 km you just might be able to make a wireless connection using two
> dish antennas, mounted as high up as you can manage.  There isn't much of
> a way to test this yourself outside of actually doing it, so you might be 
> disappointed.  But if you are close, and especially if you are "line of sight"
> to each other an rf solution might work (provided the laws don't bite you).

if you do have line of sight, then a pair of $40 Yagi antennae can do it.
My neighborhood is setup with a parabolic carrying 802.11a running
~6-8 miles from a flagpole to a site with a T3.

Line of sight is easy.