On 14 Dec 2002, at 9:01, Michael A. Wosnick wrote:

> I am running WinXP on my home computer and have a PPTP VPN connection
> from my home (cable modem on my end) to my workplace. It works fine except
> for one thing. As soon as my PPTP is active, I lose all ability to use IE
> and cannot connect to the internet at all.
>
> Is there some way I can fix this? Is this a function of PPTP itself, or a
> function of the way my workplace firewall is set up. This mutual
> exclusivity is frustrating. Surely there must be some way to use my VPN
> and the internet at the same time?
>
> All advice appreciated.
>
> Michael

  There are two ways that using your VPN and the Internet at the same time
can work:

1.  The "obvious" way:  traffic to and from work travels in the VPN "pipe",
and traffic to/from the Internet does not.
  Most VPN solutions disallow this, with good reason.  Being connected to
the VPN typically puts you *inside* the security perimeter of the work
network.  If a machine inside that perimeter is also freely connected to the
Internet, it may compromise security of the entire network.
  So even with the few VPN solutions that provide a way for the VPN
administrator to allow this (and I don't think most PPTP implementations
do), most wise administrators will choose not to.

2.  The "elegant" way:  since the VPN client looks like it's inside the work
network, provide routing so that it can access the network exactly as if it
*were* physically inside the network.  Note, of course, that if workstations
that are on the work network don't have Internet access at all, this doesn't
do you any good.
  Note also that, in this case, anything you do on the Internet will carry
an address traceable to your employer, not your home.  Even if your employer
doesn't restrict your access to the Internet by this route, you might wish
to be a bit circumspect about what you do.

  Note that in the latter case, you probably still won't have access to
other machines on your local home LAN while connected to the VPN.

David Gillett

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