Using Local Internet Connection While Connected to a VPN

Occasionally work has to be done "out of hours" by IT Professionals to avoid disruption to users. Sometimes this can be done from a remote site with our feet up, a hot cuppa and an episode of friends. During these times, nothing is more valuable than a VPN connection to your workplace. It gives you connectivity to everything on your network as if you were sitting in your office. All you need at home is an internet connection and a computer. Both of which all IT Professional's tend to have.

I am not going to take you through the configuration of the VPN at either end. We are going to assume that your VPN at work is configured and that you have a connection setup on your home PC.

One of the main problems we encounter while using a VPN is with general local web browsing. Connected to a VPN your computer will try and use the same web connection that your PC at work uses. This can prevent your local browser from displaying the latest footie results.

This is easily solved:

When connected to the VPN your browser is trying to use the default gateway on the remote network (your workplace.) All you need to do is tell it not to.

I am using Windows 7 Enterprise 64 Bit.

Start by loading the Network and Sharing Center. Quick way is to Right Click "Network" on the Start Menu and select Properties. Now click "Change Adapter Settings."

With the VPN disconnected, right click your VPN connection and select "Properties."

Now select the "Networking" tab.

Select "Internet Protocol Version 4" from the list and click "Properties."

Click the "Advanced" button near the bottom.

Here is where the option is. Untick the "Use Default Gateway on Remote Network" box and click OK on everything to close all of the boxes.

Reconnect to your VPN. You should now be able to be connected to you remote network and still use your own local internet connection to browse the web at the same time.

NOTE: It is possible to use your workplace's internet connection to browse the web from your remote PC. However if they use a proxy and/or WPAD/Proxy.pac file it will require you to reconfigure your local browser settings. This can cause further issues.