Beginners' questions on a Mac

[Kobih]

Hi There,

I have recently installed Hamachi on my Mac (OSX 10.5.8). I also created a network on it and I found the menubar. I expected to get a new IP address from Hamachi but in fact I still use the old IP address given to me by my internet provider, so I guess there's something more that I need to do. In addition I am looking for a user's manual where I can look things up by myself, especially because I know very little about VPN.

Thanks,

Kobi

[little_billy]

When you open Hamachi (I open it from the Hamachi menulet), the window that opens should show you the network(s) to which you belong.

It will show you the IPv4 address (in the 5.x.x.x range) and the IPv6 address (mine all begin with 2620:9b::::) assigned by Hamachi.

These are at the top of the window that opens when you open Hamachi, next to the "power button" icon. It will show you your network name and IP addresses.

hth

[Kobih]

Thanks Billy, I appreciate your response

Of course I see these 5.x.x.x and the 2620:x::x:x IP addresses created by Hamachi. However in my browser I see another IP address which I believe is the one which is actually used. I starts at 79.x.x.x

Yours,

Kobi

[little_billy]

Your computer keeps its IP address. Hamachi just gives you another network interface with another IP address.

Your computer is using it's "regular" Internet connection and IP address (79.x.x.x) to connect to the Hamachi network.

Hamachi has allocated the 5.x.x.x for your VPN connection. This is just another interface.

Your machine never loses it's normal IP address, and that is the address for your non-vpn traffic. So that is what you are seeing when you go to, say, whatismyip.com or whatever other resource identifies your IP address.

If you open Terminal and type

ifconfig

you will see a listing of all the network interfaces for your machine.

When I do this on my Mac, in addition to the "normal" network interfaces (en0, en1, fw0, etc) I also have a ham0, which is the network interface provided by Hamachi. This output also lists my Hamachi addresses.

So, Hamachi just gives you an additional network interface, it doesn't replace the regular interface; which is the one you use to connect to the Hamachi network.

Once you have created and/or joined a Hamachi network, you can "see" the other clients on your Hamachi network via their 5.x.x.x addresses, and they can see you.

I hope this helps.

[Kobih]

Hi Billy,

This definitely does help. I know what a terminal is though it was a long time since I have used one. It is definitely rusty at the moment. What I thought I would like Hamachi to do for me was to use a browser from behind a VPN, using encryption and the other advanteges of a VPN. I wonder if this is possible without to much programming. I am a single user though another Ipad might be added.

Thanks again for your help.

Kobi