I am having problems sending email when I am connected to my VPN. It seems that when I attempt to send mail it tries to use the VPN connection rather than my LAN (Cable Modem) connection and the VPN refuses it. I also use MS Instant Messenger to communicate with my co-workers and when I disconnect the VPN (in order to send email) I lose that connection as well. I would appreciate anyones help with this problem. Thanks.

For evidence, there is a vpn misconfiguration that cause bad entry in your routing table.

The VPN worked previously with a DSL connection. I am running Windows 2000Pro. Could you point to what I need to look at?

Without additional details, and seeing exactly what you are seeing, it is difficult to determine the issue that you are experiencing. However, I'm going to hazard a guess that it is a split-tunneling issue. My impression would be that you are using a client VPN software product, like a Nortel or Cisco/ Altiga client on your desktop, and not a WIN2K "VPN" connection (PPTP tunneling) to RAS server. The client software is launched to create a connection, and you authenticate to the far end via username/ password, or SDI token and pin. The VPN acts as a shim Network adapter (virtual NIC), and you will find one defined in your network properties for it. The shim sits on top of any physical hardware adapter you have installed, and controls all IP packets through encapsulation and encryption for that physical interface once launched. When it connects, it receives a different IP address from the concentrator, and separate from your hardware NIC. The software is configurable, along with the hardware concentrator, to support SPLIT TUNNELING. It is likely disabled in both, as most corporations have it by default. Ours does. The assumption is that if they are providing you access into the internal system, then all traffic should be directed at them. It is also assumed that any surfing would be done external to the VPN connection. Without split tunneling, all traffic, regardless of destination, is bound for the tunnel and the far end destination. All sessions that were open when the client is launched (MSN IM, internet mail, http ...) would be broken because of the change in IP addressing. If your organization allows you access through their firewall back the internet, and that all associated ports are opened, you can re-establish these connections. I utilize a similar process to access internal systems via VPN client. Once connected, I simply authenticate through the firewall and reloaded my internet apps as needed, and thenm have full access to the internal stuff I need.