Question : PPTP VPN via Windows 2008 R2

I currently have a server that unlike my other hosted servers, only has one network card and no private network. I would like secure network access over PPTP.

I am currently using firewall settings (software) and I have a dynamic IP from home thus I cannot set firewall specific rules that apply to an IP. I need more security - Is there a simple way to setup a VPN of sorts where you can only access services like RDP, FTP, MySQL, etc through the VPN? Don't want to do a 3rd party solution, would like to do this using whats built in.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Answer : PPTP VPN via Windows 2008 R2

You are right. you can set up a PPTP/L2TP/IPSec based VPN from home to that W2K8R2 server facing the internet in turn to establish a secured link for your access to the server via RDP, FTP and etc.

As you are a qualified expert, i would recommend you read Part 1 to Part 3 of the following MS document before building the VPN.

Virtual Private Networking with Windows Server 2003: Deploying Remote Access VPNs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc780187(WS.10).aspx

1. Introduction to VPN with Windows Server 2003
2. Components of Windows Remote Access VPNs
3. Deploying PPTP-based Remote Access

You may skip the certificate related content as it might be unnecessary for your scenario (one server and one client only). of course, please be aware it is not recommend for enterprise or high security applications. Instead of deploying certificates, "you can type the preshared key from the Security tab in the properties of a VPN server in the Routing and Remote Access snap-in.

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003-based VPN clients also support the configuration of an IPSec preshared key (click IPSec Settings on the Security tab in the properties of a VPN connection)."

Enjoy your W2K8R2 VPN. :-)