Several shout users were discussing this issue so here's more space.
I'm using Open VPN, an open source, free VPN solution. It's configured with text files and can be set up almost anyway you want. I have a 'server' instance of it running here at home, and client versions running on two remote machines. From my machine at home I can also see 2 other machines on my LAN. All of these machines have there own name (obviously) and BoincView only seeks for machine names; it doesn't care about the network path to reach them. Se I have machine one at 10.3.0.5, machine 2 at 10.3.0.6, machine 3 at 192.168.2.50, and machine 4 at 192.168.2.100. My server machine is multi-homed and located at 10.3.0.1 AND 192.168.2.102. Thus it can see all others. One wrinkle is that you may have to restart Boinc on some machines after the network is established in order that BoincView can see it. Not sure whay that is but it was true even when all machines wer on a LAN.
Questions/Comments wellcome

Due to "problems" at work, I can't access the FireWall rules. (I know. Network admin without firewall access. Long story.)

So, I need to be able to set it up without port forwarding. Will OVPN do this? At home, of course, I can access the firewall rules. Also, it looks like a "client" instance has to be run on each machine to be managed, right?

Also, seeing that the server is multi-homed. Did you run into any subnet issues? Both here, and at work, we're running on the 192.168.1.x private IP range. We also use the 10.x.x.x range, but they're just machines under test, and the PXE/DHCP controls them. They don't talk to the rest of the network.

Anyway. Kinda long winded, on my part. If it works without port-forwarding, then it sounds great to me. Should even be able to manage the machines remotely via the "Manage Computer" function from My Computer to stop/restart BOINC, if needed.

I have mine set up as server client, with the server at home. The (remote) client does not need any port forwarding rules; as long as it can get out on a port of your choosing, you're ok, and the return packets will be routed to it automatically. But remember that work type firewalls can be quite intelligent these days. If there's an active proxy server you may only have 80 and 443 outgoing available. Be careful. You can get detected if you're active on odd ports, and you can get fired.

Once established all distinctions between server and client are meaningless. You could run boincview on any machine and it could manage boinc on all the machines it can see, both over your local LAN, and over VPN. It's important to keep the VPN private IP's on a different subnet to the LAN IPs or you'll get conflicts.

Hadn't actually thought of using computer manager for stopping/starting boinc remotely. I'd used Russinovich's PSTools, now under MicroSoft ownership at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/pstools.mspx. You need an admin account on the remote machines, or admin login credentials.

That's not the problem. He has a "friend" who did the firewall. I would have worked him up a smoothwall, but his friend sold him a several hundred dollar "appliance", and he's the only one with the admin password. So, if I had to port forward, there's no way without calling the guy back in, at his normal rate.

About ports, no problem. I use either BitTorrent, wget or Jigdo to get the Linux images, and haven't had any problems yet. He even lets me listen to radio through WinAmp.

And, yeah. SysInternals got bought out by M$ a while back. Seems whatever M$ can't make, they buy. Yeah. I'm the network Admin, so I have Admin rights and privs. I never checked out PSTools. Is it pretty good?

And, it looks like you did answer my question. I have BV running on one machine already, so I can run OVPN on that machine, and it'll let me control the others. That's good for me.

It does some useful things, including getting you to the command prompt on a remote machine, as well as administering remote services. I think you should check it out.

I have the whole SysInternals site mirrored from just after M$ bought it (and before they took over the website). Comes quite useful.

We may have to talk. I wasn't fast enough. Would a CD-R do, or a DVD-R? ;-)

Just checked, email would do. 26MB.

I'd be interested in that site too. Maybe worth setting it up as a torrent or you'll use a lot of bandwidth?
If you're happy to e-mail don't use my "official" e-mail address; I keep it to avoid confusing Boincstats, but don't actually use it for mail any more. Try postmaster at Barorny dot com. Thanks

Hi there Povaddict. Many thanks for the torrent link but it's so slow I can't even download the torrent itself. I haven't even got into Azureus yet. Just so you know, I'm away for a few days from tomorrow, so may not be able to experiment much. If I can get as far as an Azureus login I'll just leave it running while I'm away. Best I can do for the moment. Thanks for trying.

That's what happens when the .torrent is hosted on the same computer that is seeding other three or four torrents... I'll pause them all.

EDIT: If anybody else is interested, try getting it.

Sorry... No better...

Okay, ultimate solution: http://server2.povaddict.com.ar/Sysinternals.torrent.

OK, I'll leave that running overnight. Not sure if I'll have chance to get back to you tomorrow (early start here in Ireland; like 4:00 am), but I'll leave the torrent on while I'm away.

Got it. Many thanks. I'm off now, but could put it up myself later if there's a demand

Dang. Missed it, I guess. Getting "Offline". When you can, start it back up and I'll grab and host it here, too.

Try http://barorny.com:49126/.