Hamachi looks like a promising tool to setup a VPN connection from my laptop on some WiFi connection to my desktop computer. After listening to the Security Now podcasts episode 18, I’m trying out Hamachi.
I initially started with 0.9.9.9. Like Steve said, it really does look slick. What’s funny is that within a minute after installing it on my desktop, 28 people must’ve installed Hamachi before I was able to get it running on my laptop. Popular? Sure looks like it!
- Download and install Hamachi
- Configure new network on main computer, using 63 random printable ASCII characters for the network password
- Load the network that I created on the main computer, so I can access my home computer
- Connect to home computer thru the IP address given by Hamachi
My goal is to be able to connect to my home computer via Remote Desktop Connection. Well, the stable version wasn’t working for me. I tried connecting, but my desktop would freeze up and nothing would display on my laptop. So, I jumped into the 1.0 beta version, and finally was able to use RD [thru Hamachi] from my laptop to my desktop. Sweet!
Quoting from the transcript of Security Now! Episode #18:
So, for example, many people have written saying, hey, I love using Remote Desktop, but I’m concerned about its security. What should I do? Well, they should be concerned about its security because Remote Desktop does not have strong authentication. So it is subject to man-in-the-middle attacks, and it can be compromised. In fact, the current version of the Cain & Abel Cain tool has the latest support for the current RDP protocol, which allows – and, I mean, it actually builds a file, when you’re running Cain, of everything you do over your Remote Desktop session. So here Hamachi solves the problem of wanting one computer to connect to and control another. [..] So you’re able now to securely and safely use Remote Desktop through this Hamachi link with absolutely no concern that it can be eavesdropped upon.
It is a virtual private network, peer-to-peer secure tunneling system that, I mean, I can’t find a single fault in it. I mean, I’m using it. I’m in love with this thing.
What’ll I be using this for? Anytime I’m on a WiFi connection. I can hit up the public library, or use the connection from my friends’ house, without worrying about people eavesdropping on me.
On a sidenote, there is a forum thread on how to setup full internet access over Hamachi. It’s experimental right now, so I’ll just put up with RD. I’m not complaining!
All Narfed Up 
I’m finally going to give this a whirl. I’d like an easy way to connect to my home computer from work so that I can browse or do things through my home computer.
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Awesome! It’ll only take minutes, and it’s a breeze to setup. I’m still using it!
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Wow, it is awesome. I set it up and am using the Windows Remote Desktop so far. Piece of cake! Will have to experiment with some of the file sharing and other things.
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Nice! I’m glad it was easy for you!
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Hamachi freezes up my computer when i run it. I’m sad 😦
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Did you ask around in their forums?
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Hello guys !
I was just wondering (and trying a lot hehe) that can you actually see your homedesktop with Hamachi software via other physical location when using Hamachi there too ?
I managed to put them on same network and have fileshare working, but how can i do remote admin/desktop ? Tried browsing Hamachi`s forums but couldn`t figure it out from there /hides* .
Is there any simple way to open/close/work with softwares on my home from other location. Please advice this poor noob =).
Yours,
Juha from Finland
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@Juha – Like I said in the post: “My goal is to be able to connect to my home computer via Remote Desktop Connection (in WinXP).”
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lol. This comes little bit late but i`m currently using VNC software for remote desktopping and it works like charm :), thanks for your reply though.
Another thing is that i haven`t found that good forums of avaivable hamachi networks relating to games :(. I`m really sure there are.
Tried one forum but all those servers were outdated. Peep thinks “Wow, i`m gonna run hamachi network for 15 minutes and post on teh forums that everyone can join”, when you try joining it Hamachi sayes that such network doesn`t exist, heh.
Have you found any good server =) ?
-Juha-
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@Juha: No, I don’t play computer games. =/
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I’m wondering what encryption it uses (if any), because if it didn’t it would be super easy to join a ublic net and sniff passes.
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@Anonymous: You can see the security architecture here.
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