Using a VPN to amazon EC2 instance

Hi,

Can you clarify your question? I am not sure I understand what is that you want. You say you have Windows 2012 Instance and you want to connect it through VPN. If you want strong authentication and encryption this is definitely the way to go. Otherwise you'd open your Remote management port to the world which would be very dangerous.

In your second part you say something but what is the alternative? what VPN Server you're using? Is there a separate VPN service?  Are you using the Windows Built In VPN server? If you're using the Built in VPN server you can easily use the built in IPSec client. What are you current options?  The IPSec is good and widespread but it is not go through in most corporate environments to it. Also the implementation is relatively complex when compared to a SSL VPN.

Until you could elaborate your question this is all I could say to you .

Cheers,
K.

Correct I want to avoid opening the 3389 port for remote desktop access.

What I'm trying to accomplish is connect from my computer from any ISP to the Windows 2012 instance.

How would I use the built in VPN server in the Windows 2012 instance?

Ok. If this is the case I'll suggest you to use SSTP VPN rather than IPSEC or PPTP. PPTP has a limited bandwith and limited implementation problem. IPSEC requires some TCP packets to be sent along with TCP and UDP ports due to complex implementation. SSTP requires you  to access a single port 443. If you're using this port for your application then you can remove it to a different port.

Here's an article on how to setup SSTP VPN over 2012 Server:
http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000819.htm
Another one is here:
http://advancedhomeserver.com/windows-server-2012-sstp-vpn/

Unfortunately Microsoft TechNet documentation on SSTP is a bit stale this is why I've suggested some third party sources for setup.

Cheers,
K.

Another option is setting up OpenVPN. OpenVPN implements SSL based VPN and open source and free. There are lots of information over internet for setup. Ican provide you some if you're interested.

Using Open VPN would't that require an EC2 instance?

The recommended way is to launch your EC2 instance inside a VPC, and then map a VPN link between the VPC and your office network.  Of course, if you don't have an office this is irrelevant.. :(

I have an office but both users connecting to the server are on the road for the most part

If you have one of these in your office, then you can configure a permanent VPN link between the office and Amazon, and let your users connect via the office VPN connection.
https://aws.amazon.com/vpc/faqs/#C9

No answer