yfi_setup_centos_pptpd

Preparing pptpd to work with YFi Hotspot Manager

WARNING: DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP - EVEN IF YOU DO NOT INTEND TO USE pptp!!!!!

Introduction

• Typical usage of YFi Hotspot Manager include that NAS devices behind NAT firewalls try to connect to the FreeRADIUS server running on the server where YFi Hotspot Manager is installed on.

• These NAT firewalls usually incorporate DHCP. With a changing IP the solution we use is to connect the NAS device via a pptp tunnel to the FreeRADIUS server.

• You can read up more about the technology VPN Discussion

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Setup Instructions

• Install the pptpd server. For this we go to the publisher of the pptpd program poptop
  You can install directly from the publishers site by issuing the following command:

  rpm -ivh http://poptop.sourceforge.net/yum/stable/packages/pptpd-1.3.4-1.rhel5.1.i386.rpm
  

• To download the rpm binary and install locally, you will have to issue;

  cd /tmp
  wget -c http://poptop.sourceforge.net/yum/stable/packages/pptpd-1.3.4-1.rhel5.1.i386.rpm
  rpm -ivh pptpd-1.3.4-1.rhel5.1.i386.rpm
  

• Edit the pptpd config file ( vi /etc/pptpd.conf) and change the "localip" option to something like:

  # (Recommended)
  localip 10.20.30.1
  #remoteip 10.20.30.2-10.20.30.254
  #localip 192.168.0.1
  #remoteip 192.168.0.234-238,192.168.0.245
  # or
  #localip 192.168.0.234-238,192.168.0.245
  #remoteip 192.168.1.234-238,192.168.1.245
  

• This will cause the server to create a virtual interface with IP 10.20.30.1.

• Poin to point virtual connections can be set-up from the NAS devices, using this IP when you specify the RADIUS server's IP.

• Make the file where the clients to the pptpd program gets defined writable by the user running Apache.

  chown root.apache /etc/ppp/chap-secrets
  chmod 664 /etc/ppp/chap-secrets
  

• Restart the pptpd program to apply the changes

  chkconfig pptpd on
  service pptpd restart
  

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Creating pptpd clients

• This is done automatically in the background when you add a new VPN connected NAS.

• To get the detail which you have to supply the pptpd client program on the NAS device simply edit the nas device.

• It will be specified under the 'Optional Info' tab.

• The pptp client detail is fetched from the /etc/ppp/chap-secrets file.

Next we will setup YFi Hotspot Manager's housekeeping scripts: Cron setup