[Noisebridge-discuss] Bridging & routing used with VPNs.

[Jonathan Lassoff]

Excerpts from Jason Dusek's message of Wed Apr 21 10:18:29 -0700 2010:
>   I'd like to set up a VPN server and then cause all traffic
>   from my laptop to go through the VPN.
> 
>   As step 2, I would want to ensure that only "non-local"
>   traffic went through the VPN.
> 
>   Is there any reason to prefer bridging to routing in this
>   scenario? It seems that bridging would bind the laptop NIC
>   to a tun/tap device which is bound to a NIC on the server.
>   This would prevent me from being able to handle local
>   traffic differently from non-local traffic, if I understand
>   it right.

I believe that you can accomplish what you're talking about with both a
routing or a briding setup.

The only reason I could see to use bridging is if you want to talk
non-IP protocols or broadcast/multicast over your "VPN".

For example, if you have multiple hosts connected to your private
network that you want to have resolve each others' names with MDNS, you
might consider a bridged connection.

I suppose it will depend on how you're connecting your VPN, but a
briding setup will have a slightly higher overhead (transferring
link-layer headers), so I would use routing unless there's a compelling
reason to bridge.

Cheers,
jof