Help with setting up VPN access with which router?

[to1337ca]

I have a Vista Ultimate system at home, connected to net by DSL (so no constant IP)

I want to access that computer when away from home. I do NOT want to use software like GoToMyPC or Hamatici.

Instead, I want to purchase a router that will allow me to set up such a solution entirely without third party service except for dns hosting service like dyndns (which can be handled entirely by the router, so vista will not need to be involved).

my questions are:
1. what router (e.g., linksys) should i get to do this?
2. linksys has a feature called VPN passthrough. what is it? can it help to set this up?
3. does the linksys router has some kind of dynamic DNS service that can update my dynamic IP to services such as dyndns?

thanks for your help in advance.

[macuser]

IMHO: Get a server OS, you can VMware Ubuntu Server Edition/Debian/Fedora/whatever distro you want or Windows Server 2003 for your VPN needs

VPN passthrough is simply what it implies: allows VPN connections through.

third-party firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato may have built in VPN server and dynamic DNS clients

[Jin-n-Juice]

third-party firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato may have built in VPN server and dynamic DNS clients

I dont believe Tomato has VPN server built in.

[Wingyun]

The Linksys RV042 VPN Router would be my recommendation, as I've had success with it in the past. It does what you need out of the box and has built-in ddns (with dyndns.org).
It is a bit pricey IMO, but it's a good box solution. It comes with the QuickVPN (client software) which supports Vista.

[rock hard]

if you're running the server on your vista machine, just figure out what ports VPN needs and forward them with the router to that machine... check out dyndns.org to handle your dynamic IP addie...

[Lava]

Get a router that supports DD-WRT v24 w/ VPN and run that on it. Suggestions would be the WRT300N, WRT54GL, or you can look on the DD-WRT Wiki.

[Desolatax]

VPN Pass Through on Linksys routers does exactly what it says, it passes through VPN requests/traffic.

I'd go with a router that can support dd-wrt vpn edition, older WRT54G's can and WRT150N/300N's can. I think the WRT54GL can too. There are guides on the dd-wrt wiki on how to set up vpn. Although I'm not entirely sure if it supports encryption, I think so, but not sure.
If you want to go the Server route, you could set up an home server or a linux firewall and set up an open source VPN server, along with whatever else you want (ssh, file sharing, media sharing)