A little about our setup and what I'm trying to do:
All machines in question running Windows 8.1 Pro
Remote machine users connect to our internal network with Cisco Systems VPN Client 5.0.07.0440
All machines on the internal network we can use RDC to remotely connect to however for whatever reason we can only remotely connect to the remote machines (who are VPN'd into the internal network) if their local network connection is set to trusted (private / home). If they are connected to a network thats set to a Public trust level we cannot use RDC to connect to them (standard error below); also cannot \0.0.0.0\c$ to those machines. It's my understanding that using the VPN should utilize the VPN's connection settings not have to abide by local network connection settings.
Any thoughts or assistance with this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Best Answer
Even though the Cisco Client has its own virtual adapter showing in Network Connections, it is still utilizing the physical adapter to tunnel through. The physical adapter is controlled by Microsoft's somewhat less than brilliant Network Location Awareness Service. This service disregards any Windows Firewall or third party firewall rules, and allows no traffic into the interface when it thinks it is on a public network. To Change this run secpol.msc from the run command. Go into Network List Manager Policies and change Unidentified Networks from public to private, as well as Identifying Networks from public to private. Select user can change location to make the location in Network and Sharing Center clickable. Disable and re-enable the physical adapter in Network Connections, and select work for the network location.