Can I enable "Use default gateway on remote network" on VPN connection using Group Policy?

Question

Hi,
First timer here so please bear with me!
Environment: Domain Windows 2003, Clients: Windows 7 and Windows XP (with Client Side Extensions pushed out)
When creating a VPN connection on a client machine manually with default settings the "Use default gateway on remote network" found in [Connection Properties - Networking - IPv4 - Advanced] is enabled, which is good as we don't allow split-tunneling.
I have a test GPO that creates a new VPN Connection [Computer Config - Preferences - Control Panel - Network Options], but the above setting is unticked.
Am I missing something on the options for the GP preference to set this automtically?
I can write a script to directly change the C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk file but would prefer if I could sort it all out using Group Policy.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a lot!
David

Answer 1

Shane,
There is actually a way to set the "Use default gateway on remote network" through Group Policy Preferences. And this may even be a better way to do it, because you may change this flag without touching any other settings, or other VPN connections.
(All VPN connections are stored in the same .pbk file.)
Here's the trick: Opening the .pbk file in notepad, I realized that this is actually an oldstyle ini-structured file. And Group Policy Preferences can update ini files! In the .pbk file the section names are the VPN connections names, like [My VPN],
and the property IpPrioritizeRemote is the flag "Use default gateway on remote network".
So, in Group Policy Management Editor, go to Preferences / Windows Settings / Ini Files.
Create a new object with Action = Update, and File Path =
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Network\Connections\pbk\rasphone.pbk
(If this is where your file is located, I guess it is in c:\users if the VPN connection is made for a single user.)
Section Name should be the display name of your VPN connection, without the brackets.
Property Name = IpPrioritizeRemote
Property Value = 1
Peter, www.skov.com, Denmark
Peter :-)
This is great, but just one question. I also want to append a list of DNS Sufixes in order (when viewing a VPN properties, this is buried in
"Networking --> IPv4/6 --> Advanced --> DNS --> Append these DNS Suffixes (in order)". However, for the VPNs I have manually created with this list populated, I can't see any entries in the rasphone.pbk. Does anyone know
where these are stored?
Cheers.