[vox-tech] VPN question

[Peter Jay Salzman]

I was given a laptop by the college I work at (well, loaned, actually).  It
had Windows XP on it.  I just did a Debian net install on it, but it was
really exhausting hearing people say:

   * You realize we won't support it, right?

   * It's against school policy to install your own software.

   * How are you going to check mail?  Read Word documents?  See ppt
      presentations?

over and over and over.  I felt like Linux was a dirty word, and I had to
smile, be polite and nod my head in agreement for over an hour to placate the
people at IT.  The coolest person was the dean of IT, Mark, who was totally
supportive.  Even though he doesn't use Linux himself, he was the only person
who seemed totally cool to the idea.  I guess that's why he's in charge.  :)
He's a good guy.

Anyhow, on to the question.  I'm going to be given access to a VPN.  I know
nothing about VPNs.

I'm hoping that there's a VPN protocol, and that it's not some propietary
thing that I don't have a ghost in hell of connecting to with my home
computers.  If it's a well known protocol, I'm sure there's a Linux client
that I can use.

Is VPN the kind of thing where every implementation is different and it has
to be reverse engineered on an implementation by implementation basis (like
parallel port scanners or certain P2P protocols) or is there one VPN protocol
that uses the same authentication across implementations?

And if VPN is standardized, what are some clients that people like?

Thanks,
Pete

-- 
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