Is there a path around VPN?

Chris F Clark · 2006-10-05T19:21:59+00:00

The thread on corporate snooping via VPN, and in particular thecomments about VPN terminating access to the local network have mewondering whether there is a way to keep access to the local networkwhen VPN is running? I have a pc that I use to VPN to my work andwhen it is at home also use to access some non-work sites (e.gFidelity Investments and ESPN). Now, some of the non-work sitesrequire access to ports that are normally blocked from the corporateinternet. However, if the machine could talk "directly" (i.e. via thelocal lan gateway) to the site, the machine could still access them asI don't have those ports blocked on my router. (I can still accesssome of the site features with VPN, but the streaming quotes don'tcome through, for example.)Is it possible to do that, or does VPN truly remove one from the localnet (by forwarding all packets via the tunnel)? I vaguely recall thatthe wireless software setup had some entries for "local" machines, sothat one could use ones home printer. However, that might just be thewireless connection and not VPN. I vaguely once remember RDPing(using Windows remote desktop) from the laptop to both my home desktopand my work desktop, but perhaps I did home with VPN off and work withVPN on. However, if it is possible to punch holes in the forwarding,then all I have to do is determine what addresses and ports I want toaccess via the local gateway (after verfying that it is also permiss-ible, since not everything one wants to do, one is allowed to do).

Oct 05, 2006 22 Replies

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Bill Kearney 19 years ago

Hey, now there's maturity. What're you, twelve? No wait, if you're dumb enough to use that term then you'd have to at least be in your thirties. Even more pathetic.

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AnthonyL 19 years ago

Browse/connect as if I was physically on-site. Upload/download/save/open files to/from any shared folders whether on workstations or servers subject to domain permissions.

However I did not login to the domain even though my machine was part of the domain. What I mean is that when the laptop was standalone it used cached credentials. I could only connect to the VPN once I was logged into my machine so I remained on the cached credentials which only got updated when I went on-site.

All other non-VPN activity was unaffected and ran through external IP address and not the client's network.

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