Protecting my network when using VPN client

[jneathery]

We have a couple of vendors we regularly transmit data to or from. They want us to install Cisco's Secure VPN client to some of our internal PC's so we can transmit this data securely.

My question is: can I protect my PC and network from being seen by someone on the other end of the VPN, and still use this connection for file transmission? We also use a VPN for remote users, and from our network, we can 'see' these remote users. I want to make sure these third parties can't do the same to me.

Thank you.

[wjulia]

What you're describing sounds like client to LAN connectivity.

If you install the VPN client on a machine, only that machine takes part in the virtual network. The client then establishes a connection to your vendors network... your client will then have access to their network (or at least the parts that aren't further protected by firewall/filtering etc). It's the same as clients coming into your network - they can see your network, and you can see them, but you can't see the rest of the network that they are on.

You can't protect your PC from being known on the other network, but if you don't want them to access anything on the PC, you'll probably need to put other measures in place - eg, disable your file sharing etc.

The rest of your network isn't revealed in a client to LAN environment (when you are the client-end).