[Openswan Users] Am I thinking on the right lines here?

[John]

I'm a little confused and hope the you will be able to allay my concerns.

Workstation ---- SubNet 1 ------ Server =========== DSL router ------ 
SubNet 2 ----- laptop

I have, at last, succeeded in getting a VPN (shown as ===== above) 
between the two halves of my network. However, when I tried to open an 
SSH terminal across this link (from laptop to server), I was surprised 
to have to open the relevant port in the host's firewall.

Is this normal as I thought that the VPN would tunnel traffic through 
the firewall?

Also, should my laptop be able to recognise the server as a DNS server?

Many thanks, in advance,

John