Remove Business VPN tunnel access from home network

wpro12

Honorable
Apr 12, 2012
3
0
10,510
Help needed to "disconnect" home network from VPN tunnel to business location due to close of business. We had a business network that we could access from home. We've lost access to the business network, and it seems logical that we should be able to use the home network that is existing, but was fed internet from the office, and "re-direct " it to read just the home network.

Currently at home we have a windows XP cmptr with a Netgear router, wireless access box, and Bell South Westell DSL box. How to we basically cut off the VPN link and just get what we have to read the home network?

Sorry, not an IT person, but thay are no longer available so struggling my way through!

Appreciate any help

Wendy
wh@2hdesign.com
 
Hard to be sure since we'd need to know exactly how everything was configured. It's possible the Netgear router supports a VPN client that was configured to route all your traffic through the VPN server over at the business office, including anything bound for the Internet. Undoing that might only require a factory reset on the Netgear router. Or perhaps you can just unhook the Netgear router and use the DSL device directly (esp. if the DSL device is itself a router). If the DSL device is only a modem, you can probably connect one device (a desktop/laptop) directly, but need a router for sharing it.
 
P.S. I should add, it’s possible your desktop/laptop is configured as a VPN client, and thus none of this involves the Netgear router and/or modem. Esp. if you're using a desktop/laptop they provided and preconfigured.

That's why I said, it's hard to know for sure without knowing more about all the pieces here. There's many ways this could have been configured, so I can only provide some educated guesses.
 

wpro12

Honorable
Apr 12, 2012
3
0
10,510


Thanks for responding-some good things to look into. Is it possible to briefly explain what a VPN Client is? I remember the tech staff mentioning it.

Thanks

Wendy
 
A VPN creates a secure network connection between your local network and the remote network. For all intents and purposes, it’s as if you’re physically located on that remote network. You even have an IP address from that local network so you can address its resources, including its internet gateway. In order to establish the VPN, you need a VPN client. It’s the software on your side that gets the VPN connection established w/ the VPN server on the other side. That can either be done at the router (and in that case, you wouldn’t even know it except for the fact you and everyone else, almost magically, seem to have access to the other network), OR, done at your PC (in which case only that PC would have access to the remote network, all other users of the router would bypass the VPN entirely). Of course, you’d be more likely to notice if the VPN client was on your PC since it would be listed under Network Connections (Start->Run, type “ncpa.cpl” (no quotes) and hit enter).