[PLUG] VPN and other workshops at AT meetings? (was Backups)

[Keith Lofstrom]

John doesn't know it yet, but he /really/ needs dirvish.  He will
need help setting it up, though.   I could set it up remotely on
his home desktop, if he had a VPN running that I could access it
through the net.  But I am NOT good at setting up VPNs.  In a 
pinch I can do some configuration through text windows and SSH,
but to really tweak on things, access config GUIs, and so forth
requires a VPN.

In fact, if we held a workshop, then a lot of people could help and
we could all learn together.  If we had VPN access to people's home
machines, then we could set up and tweak home machines from laptops
at Jax, and hold our workshops on those Advanced Topic nights when
Alan can't find a speaker.  Win win all around.

But we don't have the VPNs set up.  That is the sticking point.
Perhaps somebody who knows a lot about setting up VPNs ( I like
OpenVPN, but there are many others ) could lead us through VPN
setup next Monday at Jax, and people like John could bring their
laptops and we could set up an informal one on the Jax local 
network between those laptops.  Then attendees could reconfigure
their laptops and repoint the VPNs at their home servers and 
firewalls, and we would be able to use the VPNs for other topics
and workshops.


Does anyone know enough about OpenVPN to lead the workshop? 

I and probably many others know just enough to act as a bridge
between an expert and a newbie, so the "speaker" won't have to do
much speaking or slide prep.  We will have the projector available
for sharing problems and fixing individual problems as a group. 
This would NOT be the usual A.T. meeting rules;  this would be
entirely "stupid questions".

When we have VPNs for everyone, then we can hold workshops on many
other topics using that as a base.  Much long term relief for Alan,
I hope!

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs