Windows VPN with local access

Problem

After having to look this up for the n’th time, I decided to document it for my self. If you are using the built in VPN client in Windows to connect to a VPN gateway, for instance your own home firewall for remote access, you have probably noticed that your local internet connection may stop working while you are connected to the VPN. All traffic is tunneled to the remote VPN gateway, which can have a detrimental effect on your internet connection throughput. And if like me, you haven’t bothered to set up the firewall/vpn gateway to allow this in the first place, all local applications will loose internet connectivity while you are connected to the VPN.

Solution

To work around this, you have to allow local network access in the VPN connection settings. Microsoft has chosen to call this setting “Use default gateway on remote network”. You will find a similar setting in most VPN clients, but they are usually labeled something like “Allow local access”. anyway, in Windows 7 you will find this setting under Networking, IPv4, Properties, Advanced:

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The same setting is available for IPv6

Author: DizzyBadger

SQL Server DBA, Cluster expert, Principal Analyst

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