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We have a dedicated server that is primarily used to host our website. I've been tasked with determining the feasibility of setting up a VPN connection from it to our Internal Network at our offices for a few ease of use purposes. My concern is that if I establish this VPN connection our Website will only be available internally and not to the internet in general. I'm concerned about this because in everything I read the fact is stated that by default all network traffic is routed over the VPN connection when it's established, is this also true for applications such as IIS that are listening for incoming connections?

TL;DR Will having a VPN Client up and running cause a problem with server applications that may be listening on the NIC connected to the Internet due to changes that VPN makes in the routing tables?

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Reset to default
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If you're using the webserver as a VPN client, then typical setups will add the VPN gateway as the default gateway. This does not mean that incoming connections to the server will suddenly be blocked, but it means that any connections initiated by the webserver will go via the VPN.

I'd do some testing to ensure that a webserver with a VPN tunnel established can still listen on the required IP. One option you might want to consider is a split-tunnel VPN, where a VPN connection is established but the normal default gateway is kept. This means that traffic destined for your office internal is routed up the VPN, but default internet traffic is routed via the usual interface.

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  • Thanks for the advice. I'll give this a try, it looks to be what I was looking for.
    – f1gm3nt3d
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 14:16

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