[Storyboy]

My company has set me up with VPN/RDC privileges, so I can work from home. They gave me a serviceable Dell laptop, and I will be connecting to my office Windows XP Dell machine. As I'd much rather use my 20" iMac--it's on most of the time anyway--I have a few questions:

1) What are the security/privacy issues involved. If I were logged into the VPN, would internet traffic through a browser not in the active RDC window be visible to a Network admin? How about private files on my hard drive?

2) Is there anything that could go wrong if I were to log into the VPN on both my iMac, and the company laptop, so that I could launch RDC on the Mac, and a PC-only telephone client on the other?

3) I've already tried working with the above set-up, and I've seen no problems on my end. Might there be problems on the server end?

This isn't a very large company, and I'm not really concerned about corporate snooping. I'd just like to be aware.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Storyboy 

My company has set me up with VPN/RDC privileges, so I can work from home. They gave me a serviceable Dell laptop, and I will be connecting to my office Windows XP Dell machine. As I'd much rather use my 20" iMac--it's on most of the time anyway--I have a few questions:

1) What are the security/privacy issues involved. If I were logged into the VPN, would internet traffic through a browser not in the active RDC window be visible to a Network admin? How about private files on my hard drive?

TCP/IP traffic is application agnostic, so no, they would not be able to tell what browser you are using over a VPN.

I'm not sure what you mean in reference to your private files, I'm not sure how they correlate to a VPN?

2) Is there anything that could go wrong if I were to log into the VPN on both my iMac, and the company laptop, so that I could launch RDC on the Mac, and a PC-only telephone client on the other?

That's actually what VPN is designed to facilitate, and RDP (the protocol that drives Microsoft Remote Desktop) is client agnostic.

3) I've already tried working with the above set-up, and I've seen no problems on my end. Might there be problems on the server end?

No, this communication is negotiated by its underlying protocol, which doesn't care about what client you use as long as it speaks the protocol's language.

This isn't a very large company, and I'm not really concerned about corporate snooping. I'd just like to be aware.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks.

Be aware that you are supporting this company with your own funds in providing your own Mac. Instead of hiding this, I would point this out to the company.

[Storyboy]

Thanks. I've posted this on several different forums, and between them all, I think I have my answer.

By "internet traffic through a browser not in the active RDC window" I meant browsing in Firefox or Safari locally, while using the same DSL connection as the one for the VPN. I think I have the answer. If it's on my Mac, and not on the company server, what I do on the internet is "invisible."

As far as my using my own iMac, I won't mention it because a) I've already asked about it, and the head IT guy is a bit Mac-phobic, and is worried that if I were to have trouble, he'd not be very comfortable helping me, b) he'd give me his famous industry-standard speech, and c) when I've worked at home on the company laptop, I'm right next to my iMac, and it's on all day anyway--so I'm not concerned about undo wear and tear. I've worked for these folks for over 10 years, and I am in good with everyone there, and we share a lot of mutual respect. So long as there are no security issues, which I doubt, I'll just carry on with it.

I appreciate your reply.

Take care.

[besson3c]

Even if you were to browse through the company VPN, the browser you are using is irrelevant. All that is logged is network TCP/IP traffic, these logs know nothing about the browser you are using. Hell, browser usage is not even logged locally...