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If i am connected to the company VPN from home using my home PC, but i did not log into remote desktop to connect to my office computer. Can my company still see what pages i have surf using my home computer & ISP?
user64063
Posted 2011-01-21T12:20:17.190
Reputation: 33
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If your Internet connection passes through your company, then it can certainly monitor what you are doing.
But if your Internet connection goes directly from your home to your ISP, then the company is not involved.
The simplest way to verify where you are getting your Internet while connected to the VPN, is to go on What Is My IP Address, click on the left on "IP Address Lookup", then click on the button Lookup. If the address you see is not that of your home neighborhood, then your Internet connection is through the company. Of course, this only works if your home and company do not get your Internet from the same ISP and are situated in the same neighborhood (leave me a comment in this case).
harrymc
Posted 2011-01-21T12:20:17.190
Reputation: 306 093
you were right, when connected to the vpn, my IP addr was different. But since i did not connect to remote desktop, how do they match which employee is serving what from home? can i assume all they get was a IP address + sites visited? – user64063 – 2011-01-21T12:57:58.750
@harrymc, @user64063... Not exactly - If this is a work provided laptop, it can have logging or some sort of monitoring software. – William Hilsum – 2011-01-21T13:11:45.920
@user64063: Your VPN login, if unique for you, is the identification. You can force Internet to pas thru your ISP, by using this answer. It won't work if your VPN administrator turned off this option.
– harrymc – 2011-01-21T13:29:27.670@Wil: Conspiracy theory ? – harrymc – 2011-01-21T13:31:23.377
@harrymc you are super IT savvy and knowledgeable! thank you very much – user64063 – 2011-01-21T13:36:57.267
@harrymc - (My comment was to the answer, not the first comment) no, I just manage a lot of networks for high security clients, I know the sort of apps and items used. the most important thing to add is that if it is a work laptop, make sure you are not breaking their IT policy by visiting your own sites. – William Hilsum – 2011-01-21T14:08:41.753
@Wil: Interesting. Can you give examples of some such products? – harrymc – 2011-01-21T15:03:26.330
@harrymc - there are hundreds out there... this is the one that one client uses.. http://www.spector360.com
– William Hilsum – 2011-01-21T18:22:29.4870
If you have left the default option of use default gateway, then yes your traffic goes through the company. If you're just on the company vpn and its configured to use company dns servers, then yes, they could find out what sites you're going to by looking through the logs.
Calvin B.
Posted 2011-01-21T12:20:17.190
Reputation: 87
Check out: http://superuser.com/questions/136214/vpn-does-all-traffic-get-routed-through-the-vpn-when-i-am-logged-in - basically it depends on your configuration.
– DMA57361 – 2011-01-21T12:25:14.533