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Not many people have the hardware or networking knowledge I have and still setting up a traditional VPN can be difficult.  A side project at home was to link my home network to two of my friends.  Admirable but it proved to be a tedious task.

Enter Hamachi.  Reading up on this gem reminded me I had seen it mentioned before on Lifehacker.  It looked interesting but never tried it.  Today is different.  Here I’ll show you how to link PCs (Windows, Linux and Mac supported) with Hamachi and give you a few ideas on what you can use it for.

About Hamachi

I’ll cover the install on Windows today as it’s probably the most common used.  But first a little about it.  Hamachi works by adding an additional virtual network card in your PC.  It’s all software based so put down the screwdriver.  It’s uses 2048bit RSA key pair encryption which is sufficient for most corporations and banks.  Every client you install gets a nickname and a 5.x.x.x IP address.  This limits the number of clients they can have to around 16 million on their network.

Hamachi uses ‘Named Networks’ to group Clients together.  You can be in several networks at the same time, which is important.  Each network can see you, and you can see them, but one network can’t see clients in another network even if you are in both.  This breaks from traditional routing rules, but it’s important as it adds an easier to work with layer.  You are configured to be able to communicate to all 5.x.x.x IPs, but Hamachi’s servers won’t let you unless you share a network with that client.

More than one client can be installed behind a single router or firewall.  Hamachi’s servers handle the logistics of getting data from point A to point B.  Thus it reduces you down to a zero configuration for most to all people.

Also, being a client, it only allows that PC with the client installed to be seen by others.  This means your Xbox or NAS disk is still not available to anyone, even if you mount the NAS disk.(there may be a work-a-round to be posted later).

Also the 5.x.x.x IP range is currently not in use on the internet but that may change some time around Feb 2011 according to estimates of use of free IP addresses.  If it starts getting used on the internet, all this means is that while Hamachi is running you won’t be able to access any website that resolves to a 5.x.x.x IP.  Inconvenient, but still workable.

Hamachi is available in both paid commercial and free non-commercial licenses.  Both will let you create and/or join up to 256 different networks.  A free license will let only 16 users connect via a network while a paid commercial license will get you up to 50.  For small businesses, this is probably more than enough.

Installation

Installation is painfully simple, but first you’ll need the software from here.  Download it and run the install.  After a few prompts and the addition of a new software driver to your PC, you’ll be ready.  Hamachi’s client out of the box runs as a normal program that you can open and close, but in the options you can change that to running as a service, something that can be very important if you don’t want to have to be logged in to have this PC on the VPN, aka fileserver.

For those in need of a specific webproxy that you don’t already have configured in Internet Explorer, you have the ‘advanced configuration.  You can also lock down the port in use on the outside if you want to get that specific.

The first thing it will ask you upon install is to assign a ‘nickname’ to this machine.  This will be your arbitrary nickname that will be associated with your PC.  This can be changed at any time as your RSA key will be used to identify your PC and assign the IP to your client.  Once connected, their server will assign the 5.x.x.x IP to your machine.  You are on thier service, but not connected to any network so no-one can see you yet.  At this point it will ask you to either join or create a network.  For starters, create a network for yourself and assign a password you won’t forget.  You can give this network name and password to friends or family to join in, but more on that later.

Once you join a network with other clients, you are now active.  You can ping them, browse windows (or samba) shares, or web browse if they have a web server on the PC.  You can join other networks as they don’t stop you from being on other networks.  You can join or create up to 256 according to thier site.  As a free user, you can only join networks with no more than 16 members.  For home use this should be enough.

Ideas for Use

Well, the three main uses I can see for personal use are Gaming,  File share, or PC support.  I recommend making a different Network for each.  If you put everyone in the same network it can get confusing and you’ll hit the 16 member limit faster.

Gaming is a no-brainer, install the client on your gaming PC, connect to your gaming group’s network and play you network game as if local.  Speeds will be comparable to what you’d get for internet playing, but without all that trouble of making sure your router is setup or if you have multiple players in one location fighting for the same port to host a game.

Fileshare can be as simple as windows sharing a folder on your PC or as complicated as running a special program to share with.  You can decide what you want to do.  If you’re on multiple networks, I’d suggest begin a little careful and avoid any ‘guest’ enabled shares.  Even if you game, be as careful as if you just let random people connect to your home network.  You never know what is lurking on thier PC that they may or may not know about.

Finally, PC Support.  AKA, the family doctor for the PC.  How many times on holidays do you get asked to look at someone’s PC when you’re over for dinner.  Or the phone call when they accidentally break something.  Happens, but walking someone over the phone though how to fix it is hard to do when your not sure they are doing what you tell them.