At home I've got a laptop that has a broadband connection. I often have to dial into work using a dialup connection (we are yet to have a VPN!) once I've connected to work the laptop wants to route all connects through the dialup connection.

I want to be able to use my broadband connection to access the internet and to also be able to access the servers at work. Is that possible?

Laptop is running Windows XP Sp2

Go into the TCPIP properties of the dialup connection and click the "Advanced" button, then uncheck "use default gateway on remote network". This will prevent traffic not destined for your work network being routed via that connection.

However ....

I'd be surprised if your employer didn't have a policy that restricted you from being connected to the internet at the same time as their network. Probably worth checking before you get hauled up for causing a virus infection at work, whether or not you are the guilty one (or screwing up the companies routing tables).

thanks! that works! I've been looking for ages so solve this problem. Noone at work knew how to do it!

So would this mess up the companies routing tables then?

Shouldnt do as you havent bridged the connections to route through yourself. Could stick a firewall on to help keep the flow of traffic seperate and thus creating a DMZ where your internet traffic cannot cause network problems across your VPN. With regards to the virus issue, i work with NHS supplying IT and they have strict rules saying NO modems on their network at all.

Because your laptop's connected directly to the Internet but also connected to your work network, you could potentially receive viruses through your broadband connection and then transfer them to your work network.

Also, although you need to specifically tell Windows to allow traffic to be routed between network adaptors, I don't trust it. Having two network cards in a single host connnected to two (or even the same!) network creates a gateway between networks (or a loop in a single network). TCP/IP allows this to happen, and you have to rely on Microsoft having written code in to prevent this from happening...