Afrihost PPTP phone home

This service connects you to services on your home IP address. You can use this service if all of the following apply:

PPTP overview (point to point tunnelling protocol)

You can connect to the PPTP server with these settings:

Additionally, you need to ensure that your router allows your system to make PPTP connections:

Operating systems

Android

Recent versions of Android have built-in PPTP support.

Note that Android correctly points out "This VPN isn't secure." This VPN is not secure, in the sense that your data can be observed in transit by a sufficiently motivated administrator, and neither is it intended to provide a security benefit.

Windows 10

Windows 10 supports PPTP by default, but you will need to persuade it to connect to this particular PPTP server because there is no encryption.

  1. In the menu, use the "Search" function, and type "VPN"
  2. Add a VPN connection with these settings:
    • VPN provider: Windows (built-in)
    • Connection name: "Phone home" (or something suitable for your network)
    • Server name or address: "pptp.afrihost.com"
    • VPN type: Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
    • Type of sign-in info: User name and password
    • User name: yourusername@afrihost.co.za
  3. Set advanced settings for the VPN
  4. Set the "Allow PAP" advanced option, and click "OK"
  5. Connect to the VPN, and enter your connectivity password.

Linux

You need pptpd and pppd, and you're almost there: 
# sudo apt install pptpd pppd
And then you can dial it up like this: 
# sudo pppd noauth name myusername@afrihost.co.za password mysecretpassword \
  pty "pptp pptp.afrihost.com --nolaunchpppd" \
  nodetach defaultroute replacedefaultroute
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/7
PAP authentication succeeded
replacing old default route to wlan0 [192.168.0.1]
local  IP address 10.227.0.2
remote IP address 10.227.0.1

You can disconnect with Ctrl+C or killall pppd

If you're a whizz with Linux, you can set it up to route only the RFC6598 IP addresses over the network: 
# Do this all as root
sudo -s
# Route rfc6598 IP's over PPP connections:
echo > /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/rfc6598 '#!/bin/sh
ip route add 100.64.0.0/10 dev $1'
# And start up the link, without making it the default ip4 route:
pppd noauth name myusername@afrihost.co.za password mysecretpassword \
  pty "pptp pptp.afrihost.com --nolaunchpppd" nodetach

Limits

The following limitations apply: