I would like to install PPTP on my remote ubuntu server, so that it will connect back to the main office, so that backups, and and also data transfer can take place.
Can anyone suggest a good guide for getting an ubuntu headless server, (or any linux for that matter) dialing PPTP on bootup
How about trying this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VPNClient#Manually%20configuring%20your%20connection
Not PPTP related: If you can use OpenVPN, it's support on Ubuntu is excellent. Just edit /etc/default/openvpn to default some OpenVPN tunnels to auto-start on boot. On the client configuration, use some passphrase-less certificate and keys, so OpenVPN does not stop asking for a passphrase.
Alternatively, on the PPTP side of things, investigate using /etc/network/interfaces, to define
auto callhome
iface callhome inet ppp
provider callhomeprovider
This creates a "callhome" pseudo interface, that is auto-brought-up on boot, that in turn calls ppp's /etc/ppp/peers/callhomeprovider config-file. This does not require any graphical clients. For configuring that, check out the standard PPTP-client's docs.
On the page here: http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-ubuntu.phtml there's a section labeled "Configuration, by hand." This includes CLI directions for the PPTP client.
Install Ubuntu Server and the pptpd package which is a pptp server listening for connections. Then you can use windows vpn client and the linux pppoeconf or kppp to connect to your server. You can use this guide: http://poptop.sourceforge.net/dox/debian-howto.phtml , which is a guide for Debian, but works on Ubuntu.
For a headless/non-gui setup install and configure wvdial to call home and add wvdial to the bottom of /etc/rc.local as a background process to have it start on bootup.
