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Background

I need a VPN server of my own to can get into my home network when away from home. I happen to have a sheevaplug server which should handle running OpenVPN, put the two together and I get my own VPN Server! More background information:

Sheevaplug Info:

• Model: Original Sheevaplug
• Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 6.0
• Kernel: 2.6.32-5-kirkwood #1 Mon Oct 3 16:55:04 UTC 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux

Installation

A simple "sudo apt-get install openvpn" should do the trick.

The ssh "timed out waiting for input: auto-logout" messages is generated by ssh upon reaching a auto-logout after an inactivity time specified by the TMOUT environment variable. If this variable is not set your session will not be auto-logged out due to inactivity. If the environment variable is set, your session will be automatically closed/logged out after the amount of seconds specified by the TMOUT variable.

To see if your auto-logout variable is set and/or see what it is set to issue the following command:
 $ echo $TMOUT

I highly recommend using a local (or sometimes referred to as a 'soft-firewall') on any  personal computer, be it windows, mac, or linux. This guide provides a few basic concepts for using Guarddog as a local firewall.

I've had several people ask me why I go to the trouble of encrypting my Home directory (or SWAP/network drives, disks, etc.)? My first response is "Its really not difficult to do...so why not?". After thinking about the question a bit more I decide a more well-rounded answer could be construed.

This article explains how to encrypt your entire home directory post-install/user creation. Most linux distro's provide an easy to use interface that allows you to encrypt a user's home directory during setup of the OS or during creation of a new user.