13 replies to this topic

[vijay.gupta]

One more query regarding VPN: If I am connected to my office VPN and not connected to remote desktop, then all the internet traffic generated from my local computer will go through VPN. Is it correct?

[terry1966]

sorry i'm not sure exactly what your asking here, here's a link that explains all about vpn and how they work, security etc. :- http://en.wikipedia....private_network

you can be connected to a works vpn and still be able to browse anything you like on the internet from your home pc without going through the works vpn tho if that's what your asking.

[vijay.gupta]

I try to explain it better: Suppose I am logged in to my office computer using Remote Desktop after getting connected to VPN. There are two windows appearing minimized on my home computer. One is the window for my office computer and the other is for the websites that I am accessing on my home computer. Now, once I was downloading music and movies on my home computer that is consuming lot of bandwidth. I got a mail from our MIS Deptt (that I checked on my office computer through VPN) in which it was written "Please refrain from downloading unnecessary files from Internet. We are peaking our Internet bandwidth. This also applies the users that are working from home through VPN". Now, in this scenario, I did not get how this statement from MIS is applicable to the users working from home through VPN if the users are using their own internet bandwidth? Also, we are advised not to access any website that is not allowed in office such as job sites etc also when working from home through VPN as MIS can track such things due to traffic query asked above. My query here is: If I am accessing my office computer through VPN and accessing any job site on my home computer simultaneouly, then shouldn't these things be different? What is the rationale behind this thing?

[terry1966]

i'm sorry i've never used a vpn so no idea on exactly how they work but i thought(and might be completely wrong here) that after connecting to it anything you do inside the vpn window goes through the vpn and anything you do outside that window went through your own isp and the vpn can't see it..

[vijay.gupta]

Thanks terry for trying!! Can anyone please respond?

[vijay.gupta]

So, no one is able to assist me regarding this issue in this forum?

[vijay.gupta]

Also, once my colleague was working from home using RD and I was in the office. One webpage was timing out for him when trying to open on his local computer but it was not timing out for him when trying to open on office computer connected through RD. He was connected to VPN in both the cases. The difference is: in former case, he was connected to VPN but not logged on to his office computer through RD but in the latter case, he was both connected to VPN as well as logged on to his office computer through VPN. Below is the explanation that he gave me: "what i'm saying is when you connect to a VPN, all your internet traffic goes through it. So when I'm browsing sites on my computer, all the traffic is flowing through the vpn. hence, if the vpn is slow, it might give timeouts. but when i'm browsing sites through RD, its merely using the VPN to pass remote commands to my machine in gurgaon. the traffic on my machine in gurgaon is not going through the vpn and hence is not timing out" Can anyone please explain this?

[terry1966]

think he explained it as good as anyone, but i'll try anyway. as i understand it the vpn is a server at your work that you have to be connected to when working from home which then connects to the isp, i assume so you don't need to pay for an isp of your own, and is why all traffic goes through it. when at home your signal goes home pc to the vpn to the isp then to the web page, so thats 4 steps, each way and takes to long, giving the timed out error. now when he's controlling his works pc by rd, the signal goes works pc - isp - web page, that's 3 steps, each way, so no timed out error... this is where you might be getting confused the actual web page gets to him then by works pc - vpn - home pc, 3 steps, but is actually even more steps in total than if he went straight to the web page through vpn, but this doesn't matter because it's not his home pc that is actually communicating now with the web page but his works pc, even tho he's eventually seeing the web page at home and it took longer to get there, there were no timed out errors along the route. he's only communicating with his works pc, which is 3 steps his works pc is communicating with the web page, which is 3 steps so 3 steps, home pc - vpn - works pc no time outs, 3 steps, works pc - isp - web page no time outs, 3 steps, web page - isp - works pc, no time outs, 3 steps, works pc - vpn - home pc, no time outs, 12 steps in total for web page to get to him at home now, but in steps where there are no time outs. 4 steps home pc - vpn - isp - web page, timed out. that's my understanding, and hope it clears things up a bit for you,

[Tomk]

Let me try a different example. I know of a situation where a person has a poor internet connection at their house. Often they get timed out when connected to "large" pages on the internet. However, the signal is good enough to connect to the VPN at work. I believe that this is because, as you said before, the "work" is being done at the office and the home computer is just passing commands to the VPN. Often in this situation, this person can access information on the web through the VPN (with a much better connection)... that times out when they try to load the page directly from the home computer.

[vijay.gupta]

thanks terry but you are wrong here....vpn is not a server...it is a technology using which we can connect to office network. ....my question is pertainung to the situation cited by tomk..... if all the internet traffic goes through vpn when connected to office network through vpn, then if a person having poor net connection connects to network having good net connection through vpn, then he should get the good internet speed when accessing any website from his home computer as all the traffic is going through vpn..but this does not happen...why?

[terry1966]

not unusual for me to be wrong.

[Tomk]

Let me clarify just a little. I'm saying that they are able to connect to webpages that often time out at home. I'm not saying that this gives them a "good" internet speed. In my experience... the internet speed is fairly abysmal. 50% or more slower than a "direct" connection.

[vijay.gupta]

tomk, the situation mentioned by you is incidentally related to my query. can you please clarify the below: if all the internet traffic goes through vpn when connected to office network through vpn, then if a person having poor net connection connects to network having good net connection through vpn, then he should get the good internet speed when accessing any website from his home computer as all the traffic is going through vpn.. but this does not happen ...why ?

[Tomk]

My belief is that even though the remote computer is only sending commands to the VPN... the information has to get back to the computer with the "poor" connection. The "work" is being done by the computer on the good connection... but the remote connection still must receive the information to display it. I think this is what causes the slowdown. It's like when you connect to the network through a wireless access point rather than to the wireless signal from the router. It's been my experience that you lose up to 10% of internet speed through the access point. My theory is that the more devices that you pass through... the slower things go. When you connect through a VPN... your signal passes through many hands. First through your home network. Then your ISP. Then the ISP of the VPN. Then the network at the site of the VPN.... and then all of the above in reverse - just to get a picture on your screen. This tends to cause a bit of a lag. Please keep in mind. I'm not a tech. I'm just saying what I think is happening based on what I've observed. Very little science is involved in anecdotal evidence. The conclusions I've arrived at based on my experiences may be way off base. It is entirely possible that something completely different is actually happening - and drawing conclusions from faulty data will rarely result in proper analysis.