World according to AlmostVPN

World of AlmostVPN consist of SSH Servers, which provide access to Remote Resources andProfileswhich represent collection of the Remote Resources which user want to be able access at the same time. While configuring AlmostVPN you will do one of two things:

SSH Servers and Remote Resources

Think about SSH Server as a portal which provides access to set of resources. These resources could be network services ( like IMAP, SMTP or POP ), remote drives ( AFP, SMB or WebDAV), remote printers or something else. These resources could be located on the SSH Server itself or they could be located on some other host(s) accessible via SSH Server. In some cases, one SSH Server could provide access to another SSH Server, which in turn could act as a portal to different set of resources.
Example:
This picture demonstrates SSH Server (schnitzel) which runs IMAPS and SMTP servers, has Fax Modem and AFP shared drive and provide access to another host (yasha) which runs HTTP server.

Profiles

Usually, you will want to connect to SSH Server in order to gain access to some resources. Depending on nature of what you want to do at particular moment, you may want to get access to different set of resources. In some cases you may want to access particulars service (like SMTP in order to send mail), in other case you may wont to access ALL services associated with particular remote host. In AlmostVPN world, collection of resources you want to make available at the same time is called - Profile.

Example:
This picture demonstrates two profiles: myEmail and sharedStuff. myEmail profile, when running, provides access to IMAPS and SMTP servers on schnitzel. sharedStuff, provides access to Fax Modem and AFP share.

Basic operations

Configuring AlmostVPN consist of few simple operations:

Adding "objects"

right-click(control-click) on parent object in the object hierarchy tree. than select kind of object you want to add
 click on "+" button at the left bottom corner of the pane. than select kind of object you want to add. object will be added to the object currently selected in the tree.
 NOTE: you will see different set of resources depending on kind of parent object.

Configuring "objects"


as soon as you added an object, you will have a chance to specify all neccesary properties in object kind specific dialog.
you can change all the properties at any time, by selecting the object you wont to modify in the object hierarchy . once you have selected an object, its properties will be displayed in the left half of the pane.

Deleting "objects"

right-click(control-click) on the object you want to delete and select "Move to Trash"
 select object you want to delete and click "-" button at the left bottom corner of the pane.
 NOTE: Once you deleted object, it gets moved to "Trash". You can "undo" delete, by dragging deleted object from the "Trash" and dropping it on the parent object.
NOTE: There is no way to delete objects from the "Trash". "Trash" gets emptied automatically every time you stop AlmostVPN Preference Pane.

Adding resources to profile

There are two ways to add resources to the profile:
Quickest way to add resources to the profile is by dragging the resource and dropping it on the profile. Drag and drop works very well on small to medium size configurations. Alternative way of adding resources to profile is by using pop-up menu. You may want to use the menu if your configuration consist of big number of object. Right-Click(Control-Click) on the profile will pop up menu which will allow you to select the kind of resource you will want to add to the profile. Once you made your selection, dialog with list of all known resources of selected kind will appear. You can select desired resource from the list.

NOTE: In many cases, it is possible(and sometimes necessary) to provide extra configuration to the resource which have been added to profile (For example, once you have added "service" to profile, it will become tunnel definition, so you may want to specify source port for this tunnel.).

Putting all this things toogether

Number of ScreenMovies available on AlmostVPN Web Sites. These movies demonstrate how to perform some basic configuration tasks (creating simple tunnel, configuring secure e-mail access, ... ). I highly recommend to watch at least first of these movies.