Configuring a split tunnel PPTP VPN in Windows 7

While working remotely I noticed my bandwidth would drop when I connected to our VPN. It appeared that all internet packets were being routed through our VPN connection. While this normally wouldn’t be a problem, I often found myself downloading large files and my connection performance was limited to the available bandwidth to the VPN connection. That’s when I learned about what a “split tunnel” vpn connection is. I wrote this article to walk you through the process of setting up your VPN to take advantage of this option in Windows Networking.

With a “split tunnel vpn” connection, the internet traffic is routed through the local gateway connection. All other network traffic works through the vpn connection as you would expect. This is a feature that is available with Windows Vista and XP PPTP VPN connections, but it isn’t the default setting.

Here is how you configure your VPN connection to use the local gateway:

Step 1

Right click on your VPN connection and choose “properties”

Step 2

Click on the “Networking” tab. This is where we will need to make changes to the TCP/IP settings for your VPN connection. If you are using V6 IP addresses or V4, you’ll need to make the change in both locations just to be sure.

Step 3

Click on the “Advanced” button to get to the Advanced TCP/IP options

Step 4

The VPN connection by default configures all packets to route to the remote server’s gateway. We want to turn this option off by clicking on the “Use default gateway on remote network” option.

That’s it! Once you have made those changes you will notice your internet packets are no longer automatically routing through the VPN server.

Comments

1. Jonathan Says:
   July 5th, 2012 at 12:57 am

   Brilliant. Thanks for your effort. 30 seconds and one checkbox change made all the difference to my internet speed. Normally I would have asked my friend the ITC Director of my company, this time I did it myself.
   Thanks again.

2. zach Says:
   July 9th, 2012 at 1:03 pm

   No problem! Glad we could help

3. Ang Says:
   October 12th, 2012 at 1:49 pm

   i am experiencing this problem. what if there is no such option under the TCP/IP settings? there is no available box to uncheck (windows 7) can you assist with what i should do in this case.

   thanks in advance

4. zach Says:
   October 15th, 2012 at 7:43 am

   Which option are you referring to that you do not have?

5. Ishutzi Says:
   March 22nd, 2013 at 9:56 am

   Perfect.

   Thanks!