When you use VPN, what happens if the VPN server goes offline? Would Windows sil

Question

When you use VPN, what happens if the VPN server goes offline? Would Windows silently revert to using your LAN connection, without notifying you?

This would be an OK behavior if you use VPN to access resources on some other network, but what if you use it to prevent logging of your browsing activity (example: employers' network)? Would you suddenly be visible without realizing it, like in the cartoons where the invisible powder stops working and everyone sees our hero sneaking about?

Is there a way to tell Windows to prevent Internet access until you explicitly say you don't need VPN anymore?

Explanation / Answer

In most cases if your VPN server drops a connection, your operating system will just start routing traffic using it's standard networking mechanisms.

If you'd rather it dropped all traffic when the VPN was down, you could looking at setting up your firewall to only allow traffic to go out over the VPN interface and not the standard network interface cards (with the obvious exception of access to the VPN server itself)

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