Cisco/Nortel VPN conflict with LAN printer

[Terry]

I have a three computer home network set up with a
printer connected to one of the two desktop computers.
On that computer, the user needs to use Nortel Contivity
VPN software to access work from home. On the laptop
computer, I need to use Cisco VPN software to access the
computer systems at the college I am attending. When VPN
is not being used, all three computers can access the
printer with no problems. If the Nortel VPN is being
accessed, then only that desktop computer can access the
printer. If the Nortel VPN is not being used but I am
accessing school via Cisco VPN on my laptop, I can not
print to the printer but the other two computers can both
access it with no problem. My local network is setup as
a Workgroup. Would it change anything if I made it into
a Domain LAN? I'm looking for a way that VPN and printer
access can coexist.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I have a three computer home network set up with a
printer connected to one of the two desktop computers.
On that computer, the user needs to use Nortel Contivity
VPN software to access work from home. On the laptop
computer, I need to use Cisco VPN software to access the
computer systems at the college I am attending. When VPN
is not being used, all three computers can access the
printer with no problems. If the Nortel VPN is being
accessed, then only that desktop computer can access the
printer. If the Nortel VPN is not being used but I am
accessing school via Cisco VPN on my laptop, I can not
print to the printer but the other two computers can both
access it with no problem. My local network is setup as
a Workgroup. Would it change anything if I made it into
a Domain LAN? I'm looking for a way that VPN and printer
access can coexist.

Your VPN clients probably have a firewall built in/disable all non-VPN
traffic, which is a Very Good Thing from a security standpoint - this is
probably disabling access to local shares across your network.
I'd buy a cheap print server device and set up the printer on the network
directly...assign a TCP/IP address to it, and set up the computers to print
directly to the printer via a standard TCP/IP port.