VPN Question

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If I'm connected to my employer via a VPN, and am on another computer, can they see the activity on my other computer?

So say I'm connected to the VPN via my work PC, and during my lunchbreak I am checking personal e-mails on my personal laptop with the VPN still connected. Can they see that activity?

Just curious is all. Thanks in advance.
 
VPNs, by nature, are isolated, secure tunnels. Any traffic on your network that is 'outside' of that tunnel should not be visible from within the tunnel. Your ... "e-mail" .. should be just fine.
 
Not a network administrator by any stretch of the imagination but my experience with VPN is that can see some stuff. Never used a personal computer through a VPN but if I am at a hotel and are connected through the VPN on my work computer I still can't go to any blocked sites. If I disconnect from the VPN then I'm fine.

Not sure if they can read your email but they still know what websites you are visiting.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
So say I'm connected to the VPN via my work PC, and during my lunchbreak I am checking personal e-mails on my personal laptop with the VPN still connected. Can they see that activity?


If whatever device you are using is connected through the VPN then it is connected through the VPN and subject to whatever oversight policy is present in that VPN.

In your example you say you are on a "work PC" but then allude to your personal laptop being "still connected" to the VPN. Maybe you should not connect your personal laptop to your employer's VPN.
 
If you're on your home Internet with your work computer, and you're VPN'd in, your employer cannot 'see' any other computers or devices on your home network. The whole point of a VPN is an isolated tunnel from A to B. You're fine.
 
Most VPN configurations block other networks to protect their network. I.E. when I VPN in, I can't even print to a local printer on my network. The fear is your personal/wife/kid's computer is infected and if the company laptop can also see your network, that network nasty might make its way to the corporate network.

VPN is about protecting the corporate network. So it's not in their best interests to let a computer attached to the VPN also have access to your home LAN.
 
I’ve been on both kinds so I think you should just ask your IT admin. Some of them only use VPN for connections that need it and others act like a complete endpoint solution that enforces certain behaviors and policies.
 
The VPN traffic is completely isolated from all other traffic on your network. That's the point of VPN. They can't see a thing on any other device.
 
The only way other computers on your network would be sending traffic over the VPN would be if your router was the VPN endpoint. If you are using a VPN client like AnyConnect, then the tunnel is present and available for the device you have the software on, nothing else.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
The only way other computers on your network would be sending traffic over the VPN would be if your router was the VPN endpoint. If you are using a VPN client like AnyConnect, then the tunnel is present and available for the device you have the software on, nothing else.


this.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
If I'm connected to my employer via a VPN, and am on another computer, can they see the activity on my other computer?

So say I'm connected to the VPN via my work PC, and during my lunchbreak I am checking personal e-mails on my personal laptop with the VPN still connected. Can they see that activity?

Just curious is all. Thanks in advance.


You do not say if your employer supplied your router and if so do you have your own separate router in the house that your other computer is hooked up to..

1.If your employer supplied the router and the VPN is set up through the router and that is the only router in your home anything can be possible as ALL traffic maybe going through your employers network. Anything is possible.

2. If your employer supplies your router BUT you also have your own personal router as long as your personal computer is using your personal router you have no concerns. (more or less you have your employers router Ethernet cable plugged into the home router)

Just my thoughts, I am far from an expert. But just makes sense if you have no personal router any traffic going through a company router can not be considered for your eyes only.
 
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