Can't run VPN and browser at same time

[John Gray]

We have a person who works from an XP Pro laptop from home, VPNing into her PC at work and using RDC. She has ADSL. Previously, over well over a year, she has had no problems.

She now reports:
"What I used to do, when working from home, was to have the VPN running but also have a browser open on my ‘home’ screen. Now, when I try to do that, the browser can’t connect to anything while the VPN is running. As soon as I turn the VPN off the browser springs into life. What (if anything) can I do about that?"

I can't think of any obvious solution, although I do get some disruption to sound when using BBC iPlayer for Radio 3 when starting up a VPN into my own work PC. But I get no problems with browsing.

Any ideas, please? Thanks!

[StuartR]

Can you check what proxy settings she has when the VPN is in use, and compare this to the configuration of your PC.

[John Gray]

Thanks, Stuart - but we don't use any proxy as far as I am aware!

We just point to the fixed IP address at work.

[StuartR]

...We just point to the fixed IP address at work.

John,

When the VPN is connected you probably send ALL packets across the VPN to your work network. Depending on how the work network is configured you may need a proxy server to enable requests for external web sites to get through your firewall. This would be configured within your web browser. For example in Internet explorer it can be found at Tools > Internet Options > Connections, and then select the VPN connection and click Settings.

[John Gray]

I've never done anything to any web browser, IE or Firefox, so I think it must be done automagically by the router or the server via routing tables. I simply connect to the IP address and start up RDC pointing at a particular PC name. It also works via the internal IP address.

I'm away from work at the moment so can't check further, I' afraid...