Can VPN see traffic not directed to go through it.

[I'm.with.stupid]

From home I connect to a corporate intranet by using the build in CISCO VPN to create a VPN tunnel, then run RDC, with the RDC settings contains the corporates IP address, to log in and connect to a terminal server to the intranet in the RDC window, there I have intranet and internet access as if I was on site.

When the VPN connection is active none of the other apps on the computer (iTunes, software update, or browsers) can connect to the internet, they just keep trying until they time out. I've made no attempt to set them to go through the VPN or terminal server nor to prevent it.

My question is if I forget that the VPN is connected, and I open safari in the computer (when RDC is not running) and try and load a website (which of course doesn't connect) will the corporate severs see the IP Safari was trying to open or is it not being directed to the VPN

 

[hallux]

The VPN "sees" ALL network traffic attempted from your computer. In your case, by not having the proxy server configured you're not able make any connections except those within your work network which is why RDC works.

 

[ElectricSheep]

Some VPN configurations do push additional routine information to connected clients whether or not the client asks for them.

However, if you have sufficient rights on your own machine, you can look at and manipulate this routing information with the netstat -r (to view the current routing table) and route (to add or remove routes) commands in a Terminal.