VPN Features - LAN to LAN PPTP

The WZR's PPTP endpoint also contains a PPTP Client (Figure 11) that can be used to connect to a remote PPTP server to form a LAN-to-LAN PPTP tunnel. It also has a built-in configuration "wizard" (LAN-LAN VPN Connection button), but once again I bailed out while using it.

This time it was at the CONFIRM HEAD OFFICE CONNECTION SETTINGS screen, where I was baffled by the User idea used for connection entry. With no on-line help, or information in the User Manual or VPN Setup Guide to help me out, I actually found the PPTP Client screen less confusing.

Figure 11: PPTP client setup
(click image for larger view)

The Client screen contains a number of options that could use better explanations somewhere in the documentation, along with some setup examples. Since I didn't have a second WZR (Buffalo actually was going to send one, but I asked them not to) and no PPTP server handy, I didn't test a LAN-to-LAN connection. But if you're familiar with PPTP setup, you should be up and running in no time - just use the PPTP Client and skip the "wizard".

Buffalo has included a number of handy features for more advanced PPTP setup that you can see by looking at the PPTP Server and Client screen shots. The Client has many options for keeping the tunnel connected (or not), and also lets you control whether RIP routing information is sent through the tunnel and whether all Internet-bound traffic is directed through the PPTP tunnel (Default Route).

Finally, decent VPN setup and teardown information is available either via the built-in Log Information screen (Figure 12) or directed to a syslog server of your choice.

Figure 12: PPTP logging
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By the way, the WZR's logging features are pretty extensive (14 different categories with "Error" and "Notice" levels), with the notable exception of website traffic logging.