Is my routing node visible to the outside world?

[Samuel Nketsia-Tabiri]

Is my routing node behind the VPN Server visible when I connect through the vpn  and access a website outside my domain? Or it is still protected from the outside world because  the VPN server is being used to NAT my traffic to this website.?

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

You have used some very general terms in your question but I will attempt to reply with some caveats.

Generally speaking most remote access VPNs use private addresses which are translated using NAT when traffic leaves the protected (internal) network en route to a public server, such as a web server on the Internet. You address appears to the remote server as one of the addresses from the NAT pool (or sometimes outside interface) of the VPN concentrator or firewall that is performing that function.

You can always check your address as it appears to the outside by browsing to something like http://whatismyip.com

[Samuel Nketsia-Tabiri]

Thank you Marvin for the response which I gathered that once I access a website outside my domain  after connecting through a vpn, regardless of my routing node using either a private ip address (which is not routable on the internet as you indicated) or a routable ip address, once it is behind the vpn server those ip addresses will not be seen outside my domain except my inside global address being used as my source ip address to connect to that website. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

[Marvin Rhoads]

Your understanding is generally correct.

One cannot say for sure in every situation since there are many options on how to set up a VPN server.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Samuel Nketsia-Tabiri]

Thank you so much. Marvin.

[Marvin Rhoads]

You're welcome. Please rate replies that helped and mark your question as answered if it is.