I have set up my computer as a VPN server, with a couple business partners logging on as VPN clients. When they are logged on to my computer, each client will lose access to the Internet (either surfing the web through Internet Explorer or trying to get e-mail through Microsoft Outlook). Is there a way for the clients to use the VPN connection AND get independent access to the Internet at the same time?

Do your clients have any proxy settings in the VPN settings or in their browser settings? If they do, try setting them to do not use proxy. If they do not have any settings it could have something to do with your set up. Are you connected to the Internet via DSL or Cable? If you are, they could be having a problem because when they are connected to you there access to the Internet is through your service which has a firewall that you can get through but they would not without having your providers proxy settings.

A little history: Both myself and my business partner work out of our houses, his being 20 miles away. We set up the VPN for two reasons: 1) to bypass e-mail when transferring big files back and forth, and 2) to allow his wife to do the bookkeeping remotely while control of the QuickBooks data file is kept on my computer. We are both connected to the Internet via DSL and both are running BlackICE Defender. Perhaps I need to set them as a "trusted site" in BlackICE Defender to allow them concurrent access to the Internet and VPN. I readily admit that I don't understand proxy settings. We let everything work "automatically". Should we set up our TCP/IP connections differently to fix the problem? Do we do something with proxy settings? All this VPN stuff has been black magic to me ever since I started...

Okay, this is really simple. You can do both - you have to right click on your VPN connection in either Dial-Up Net. or Net and Dial-Up Connections... (I didn't see if you have 2000 or 98...) anyway, find the TCP/IP protocol and select properties. Then click the 'advanced' button. To get this working, all you have to do is uncheck the "Use Default Gateway on Remote Network" box. When you connect to the internet, the network routing sets the default gateway to use your internet connection, then when you connect to the VPN, it sets that to the default overriding the internet settings... if you uncheck that box (it may not be in the same place in win 98, but it's there...), it allows you to access both the VPN network and the internet.

Try unchecking "Use default gateway on remote network"