I only have a rudimentary knowledge of VPNs. My understanding is that, in most network configurations, when a client is connected remotely to a VPN server, all network traffic passes through the VPN server before going to the client, and all data coming from the client passes through the VPN server before going out over the wider Internet.

I run Windows 7 using VMWare Fusion under OS X Lion. If I access a web page in Safari, say, on the OS X side of things, does that traffic pass through the VPN server? Or does it bypass it because the two OS's are regarded as separate network devices by my LAN? I would appreciate any insight anyone can provide. Thanks.