Luke Scharf wrote:
> One other NAT option that I've been looking at lately is a box that
> looks like a home-router that has  a built-in VPN service.  This may be
> easier and more elegant than port-forwarding, if it matches your needs. 
> I've been looking at the Buffalo WZR-RS-G54, and one of the networking
> guys I know recommended the Cisco 800.  It should be easy to maintain,
> and your networking guys may approve of a device like this?
>   
I am not sure, and I will have to look into this (and related products).
I'd definitely prefer a route which involves each machine seeing the
internet directly (only ssh), but even if that's not deemed kosher, I
can live with the hop-hop solution. Like you said, this seems like a
nice set-up /if/ it works as advertised.
>> I use shfs instead of nfs (so there are no issues there).
>>  
>>
>>     
> Excellent!  I'd like to hear which version your using, and how reliable
> it is.
>   
I currently use shfs-0.35. I have not had a single reliability issue
with it. I am not sure about the file-locking requirement (gdm?), but 
it is a non-issue for me as I only use shfs to serve up folders on boxes
with larger drives to store computation information and stuff like that.

The day I saw tab-completion on my bash console on a securely connected
remote drive, I was sold. I have always resisted nfs, and people have
historically resorted to manually moving information via ssh. Now
they're happy campers.
> They're probably most concerned about machines spewing stuff on their
> network.  The box being rooted would be a classic way for this to
> happen, but certainly not the only way.
>
> Our central network folks don't care about our data, in a professional
> sense.  Of course, they'll comisserate over your lost data at the pub --
> but, at my university, their role is to make sure that the network stays
> working as well as possible for as many people as possible.
>   
I understand where they're coming from. It's just, I am only a part-time
sysadmin, but a full time science geek. And priorities  on either side
of the fence don't always match up perfectly.

Harish