WIN32 LiveCD for use with qemu or vmware?

Second post about security for my laptop.
In previous post I asked about "leaving no traces" on my laptop.

If you use vmware or qemu with a livecd, my first choice was to use a good linux distro. But then I had the problem that I could not run all my application with linux and my pcmcia wlan card, there was no driver, etc, etc.
I decided to try a WIN32 livecd.

For now I have tried 3 different "versions":
BartPE, Reatogo and ubcd4win.

Reatogo really looked the best winxp clone to me.

I want to hear from your expert experiences !

First problems I had with the win32 live cds:
- I could not configure a VPN connection or SSH tunneling.
- I could not find plugin for some applications.
- For some reason I could not get them to work in VMWare player as the NAT networking did not allow to use the host network and bridge networking was also not working. (Everything worked fine though if I booted from the cd without vmware)

Would like to see some advice on this. Thanks !

 

Hello,
Do you use firewall? You need to tell your firewall to treat vmware network card as another connection on your local network, otherwise it won't work.
As to live CDs, configuring VPNs is not as easy as it sounds. Different countries use different protocols. PPP might not work in your environment. For instance, I have never succeeded in configuring L2TP VPN using either live CDs or Linux and have yet to find a reliable source / way / idea how to do it.
Your best idea with Live CDs might be to connect to internet without VPN dialers, that is if you use cable or similar dsl, then the moment you power on the machine you will have internet access - it's rather convenient.
There's also the possibility that some of the live CDs do not recognize your drivers. Maybe you have "special" netowkr cards / modem that require a special disk to install, and thus would probably most likely not be included in the standard default drivers package that comes with Live CDs.
Try to isolate your problems one by one:
Check the firewall.
Check for direct connection.
Check the drivers.
First and second option would not bother you either way so you should try them. Drivers can be a little tricker.
Mrk

 

Mrk,

Good points ! Thanks for the feedback.
The firewall was the solution and prevented the NAT or BRIDGE routing from my guest OS to host OS.

About the VPN connection:
I included the official drivers as a PLUGIN for the bartPE livecd.
MS VPN just requires some winxp services to be running.
If you try to add a "New Connection" then the wizard tells you "Connect to the network at my workplace".
But using BartPE or Reatogo cd, it complains about a telephone book not available and the RAS service not running.
Therefore the VPN option is kinda disabled.

I have never tried to use the Browser Appliance and configure VPN within the Ubuntu OS, but then again I am not very familiar with configuring a VPN connection within Linux.

Why I decided to use a win32 livecd, like BartPE or Reatogo?
Linux did not have drivers for my pcmcia laptop wlan cards :-/
I also did not know how to configure VPN.
Found it harder to use some applications within Linux OS.

Maybe I am just giving in to easily and the Browser Appliance should still be the best way to go...

What are your thoughts?