Linux VPN Client and IKE compliance

[Unni Nambiar <unambiar@Legato.COM>]

Hi,

My company uses a firewall server called Firewall-1 from Check Point
Software (http://www.checkpoint.com).  Unfortunately the VPN client they
provide called SecuRemote works only on windows.  Assuming that the
protocols used for VPN cannot be proprietary, i've been hunting all over to
find out how a Linux VPN client could communicate with Firewall-1 (so i can
vpn into my office without switching to windoze.:-()

Finally I got this piece of information from someone else who had the same
query.

<extract>

I read your post from last month on the firewall mailing list;
FW-1 4.0 is IKE compliant; therefore, with cooperation from
your firewall administrator, you could use any IKE compliant
client (or SKIP-compliant, for that matter).  Not that I'm sure
there are any such clients for Linux, but you aren't bound
to SecuRemote for encrypted connectivity.  If you have a cisco
router w/ a version of IOS which supports IKE, for instance,
you could make a VPN connection, although life will be much
easier if you have a static IP address (just the nature of IPSec).

</extract>

Okay, what i understood from this (and further exploration) is that if i can
find a Linux VPN client whose key management scheme is IKE (or SKIP ?)
compliant, then i should be in business.  The second part didn't make much
sense, i don't know why i need a static IP address.

In any case, at this point i've hit a blank wall.  I'm unable to get any
information on Linux VPN clients that are IKE compliant.  All searches seem
to lead me to Linux VPN server setup.

Can anyone help or at least point me in the right direction ?

Thanks.

-Unni Nambiar