[Centos] VPN between 2 CentOS machines

[ryanag at zoominternet.net (Ryan)]

I am trying to connect two CentOS  machines (one laptop --> one  
desktop) securely across the'net.

The desktop is running masquerading and provides internet sharing for  
my network @ home.

I have been running squid on the desktop, then tunnelling http in via  
SSH, but this creates a drag on the machine and network (for some  
reason the bandwidth doesn't get shared- the SSH tunnel gets it all).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Most of the time the laptop will be  
at hotspots.