XP VPN browsing

[James]

I can connect from a Mac at home over comcast broadband
via CISCO VPN to my corporate site but can't view certain
content since the site is written for Active X only. So
on my XP machine I have the PC CISCO VPN client which can
connect to the corporate site and interact with the
mainframe. But no websites work in Explorer 6.0, even non-
proprietary example sites like sfgate.com. However, if I
shut down the VPN connection on the XP machine then IE 6
browses just fine. Of course the one I'm really
interested in is only accesible while tunneled in VPN (and
has to be viewed on the PC because of Active X). I read
in other Windows support sites to turn off the XP firewall
which I had enabled when I installed. Does anyone have
any other suggestions or insight? Thanks.

 

[Daniel]

Quote from "Windows XP Inside Out eBook, Chapter 32
Remote Access Options":

Other Internet services stop working when you make a VPN
connection.
When you make a VPN connection, you might find that you
can no longer browse the Internet using Internet
Explorer, hold conversations using Windows Messenger, or
use other applications that access the Internet. This
occurs when the VPN connection is configured to use the
default gateway on the remote network for Internet
access. When you make a VPN connection, Windows adds to
the IP routing table a new default route that uses the
connection to the VPN server. That new route is assigned
the lowest metric, which means that it's used in place of
your original default route-and therefore prevents access
to some locations. Although this is a useful feature when
you connect to some corporate networks, it's generally of
little use when you're connecting to a single computer or
a small workgroup.

To fix the problem, follow these steps:

In Control Panel open Network Connections, right-click
the VPN connection, and choose Properties.
Click the Networking tab, select Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP), and click Properties.
In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box,
click Advanced.
On the General tab of the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog
box, clear the Use Default Gateway On Remote Network
check box.
You should then be able to use other Internet
applications while your VPN connection is active.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Daniel's answer would be correct if you were using the Microsoft VPN client
software, and if the setting he cites weren't restricted by group policy.

Because of the security risk, many VPN clients restrict you in the way you
are experiencing. If you don't see a setting like the one Daniel mentions
("split tunnel" is another term for this) in the configuration for your VPN
client, you'd need to ask your network support staff about whether this is
permitted in your environment.