If I VPN onto a network, can my host machine traffic be seen by the network?

Question

I'm a little confused as to how VPN works, I have VPN'd onto a network and its sitting connected in my systray. Does all my internet traffic now go through that via my broadband so say if I'm googling will those google results go through that VPN network now or continue directly through my home broadband?

Will VPN only traffic work with RDP if that makes sense?

Answer 1

If you use a Microsoft VPN to a location A, let's say work, by default, all of your traffic, including the Internet will go to work, and then out their gateway (router/firewall). The Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) service on the other end can also limit where you go, but most times, it is not configured.

You can go into the settings for your VPN connection, and I do recommend you at least try this, and click on Properties>Networking tab>Double click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)>Advanced and uncheck "Use default gateway on remote server". What this will do is keep your Internet traffic going out your usually faster local Internet connection, and only the network traffic intended for work, going to work. The only caveat is that if you have multiple subnets at work, and you try to get to a remote subnet (not the one you VPN'ed into), you will have to re-enable that "Use default gateway on remote server" box.

Other VPN software will work differently, and varies by manufacturer.

Answer 2

It depends. VPNs can be used to access company networks which were otherwise inaccessible to the user, in this case unrelated traffic usually do not go through the VPN.

When being used for providing protection against sniffers on wireless networks or bypassing access restrictions, all traffic will be routed through the VPN. For this, you need to configure your VPN client to route all traffic through the VPN connection.