I have the good fortune to be allowed to work from home, and I connect to my company’s LAN by VPN (this is all Windows-based). Last year, my company told everyone that they should not access streaming content via the company internet connection because it eats up too much bandwidth on our company network. I was told that this applies to me as well, because once I’m connected to the VPN, all my internet goes through their system.
However, I’d love to be able to listen to streaming audio content while I’m working, especially with baseball season starting soon. So, my question: Is there any way I can, while still connected to my company’s VPN, maintain an internet connection that is accessing the internet directly and not going through them?
I believe some network setting of mine is set up to resolve names using their naming servers. So when I’m connected to their VPN, any internet address I access is resolved by their DNS to go through their Internet gateway.
This is all background - I am not telling you how to go around anything that corporate IT may have put in place, OK ?
VPN clients build a “tunnel” across the Internet (or other networks) to a central VPN gateway on the corporate network. Unless an option known as “split tunneling” is enabled on both client and gateway, the VPN client hijacks all network traffic leaving your PC and shoves it across the tunnel to the gateway. No exceptions. Chances are that split tunneling is turned off, and you’re basically SOL.
If split tunneling is enabled, specific local networks may not be routed across the VPN. (This’ll let you use, say, a network printer if you have one of these on your home network.) Theoretically, with split tunneling enabled, you could modify the routing on your PC to make traffic to the Internet to go via the normal path through your router and traffic to your company to go though the VPN tunnel. Provided, of course, you knew the relevant IP networks on the corporate network etc. etc.
Bad news: Now your PC has a leg on the Internet and a leg in the (presumedly) secure corporate environment, without the Internet leg going through the corporate firewall. Fair or not, us corporate IT jerks really hate that (it gets us fired) and so we try hard to make it impossible.
Perhaps a satellite radio would serve you better ?
If it is a Windows XP VPN, you can go into Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections
Right-Click on the VPN Connection and choose Properties.
Go to the Networking tab.
Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the properties button.
Click Advanced…
Uncheck use default gateway on remote network.
Click OK three times.
This should put all of your company traffic over the VPN, and the rest going over your home line. However, all DNS queries will still go over the VPN, so they may be able to trace where you are going, but it shouldn’t use bandwidth.
Occasionally this may cause issues with access to some resources, so if it does, just folllow the same steps to re-check the use default gateway on remote network box.
Actually, it’s rather easy. But you’ve got to have the connivance of your ISP or be running multiple machines. And you’ve got to be allowed access to the local ‘LAN’. You need a proxy server (yes, a proxy server, not a router). All your internet access must be routed via your proxy server which then talks to the internet. Chances are, your ISP is running one, even if you aren’t.
As Spiny Norman said, chances are your IT dept won’t like this.
If you have multiple machines, why would there be any issue at all? Surely if you’re connected to a VPN on the work machine it has no impact on the home machine? Your work machine traffic will go through the tunnel and be routed through the company infrastructure, but the home machine with no tunnel setup will happily view the internet “directly”.
The truth is, I do have two machines…but they’re in two different rooms, I’d have to turn up the other one very loud to hear it while I’m working on my work machine.
hook a patch cable from the nonwork computer’s mic jack to it’s speaker jack. Open the radio station up in the nonwork computer. PlayThen use something like shoutcast to stream the mic audio to your work computer. Alternate if you don’t mind running cable through your house could just run a long patch cable from your nonwork computer to your work one.
For bonus points install VNC server on the nonwork computer, and vnc viewer on the work computer. Then you can remote control the nonwork computer from the work computer and save having to get up to change the station.
Lazyiness is an art form.
Not only that but you can use the nonwork computer for other internet stuff, and work comp for work. Side stepping VPN without much of loss in security.
If so, you can go with MP3s, or try some variant of lowkey’s idea. Basically, all you need to do is find someway to stream from one computer to the other. However, it would be a lot easier to look through your VPN software (if it isn’t Window’s built in) for a “split tunnel” option.
Why bother with the patch cable at all? Assuming both computers are running a remote control software package that lets sound pass through you’re all good.
Because VNC doesn’t stream sound, I think PCanywhere might, but I don’t have much experience with it, and don’t like telling people to use things I’ve never used. Plus they charge for it, more then they do for a patch cable.
