set up PPTP VPN server (debian linux)

On the server side:

• First of all, you need to install the PPTP package (apt-get install pptpd).
• Then, you need to configure PPTP. In the /etc/pptpd.conf file add the following lines:

localip 192.168.1.2
remoteip 192.168.1.20-25

The localip address is the ip of the machine that pptpd runs on and the remoteip is the range of ips that will be used by the clients.

• The DNS server should be added in the /etc/ppp/pptpd-options file. The entry should look like this:

ms-dns 194.219.227.2
ms-dns 193.92.150.3
(use your isp's dns servers)

• The vpn users should be declared in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

# client server secret IP addresses
username pptpd password *

• In order to avoid the error described in this bug report, in /etc/pptpd.conf comment the logwtmp line
• Ip forwarding needs to be enabled in /etc/sysctl.conf ; uncomment the net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 line.
• Restart pptpd (/etc/init.d/pptpd restart) and networking (/etc/init.d/networking restart)
• You should use a service like dyndns to get a hostname (unless you have a static ip anyway) and configure your router to forward port 1723 traffic to the server machine.

On the client side:

• Install the following packages: pptp-linux, network-manager-pptp , network-manager-pptp-gnome
• Open "edit connections" on network manager.
• On the VPN tab add a new PPTP connection.
• The gateway should be set to the external ip of the server machine (e.g. dyndns host account). The username and the password should be set as in the /etc/ppp/chap-secrets file
• In the Advanced options, enable the "use point-to-point encryption (MPPE)" option and MSCHAP and MSCHAP2 authentication methods.
  
  
  

• You should be able to connect now.