VPN only session.

[Greg Kettmann]

Is there a way, in Linux, to make a VPN the "primary" connection?

I work remotely several days a week, as many of us do.  Most of my 
experience is Windows with moderate skills in Linux but 
work/connectivity is generally through Linux.  I have a VPN connection 
for work  (PPTP / CHAP as best I can tell from the configuration file).  
I don't like configuring my entire workstation or laptop to use a VPN 
because of complications I've had.  Instead I run Windows 7 with a 
VMware Player session where I run Ubuntu for my "remote" session.   That 
way I have my usual machine and then I have a dedicated session for 
remote use.

The problem is that the VPN session randomly drops out.  Basically, I 
start Ubuntu and once it's operational I click on the little up/down 
arrows for network.  I select the VPN and I activate it.  This puts a 
little lock on the up/down arrows and I'm set.  Sometimes the lock drops 
off and I'm sending (or trying to send) in the clear.  Easy enough to 
fix but often a pain to get things back to the proper state.

What I would prefer is to have the VMware session just be connected via 
VPN... no VPN, no connectivity.  If the VPN connection drops out I don't 
want it to fall back down to sending in the clear.  The whole session 
will stop working and I can restart it.  Is that possible?  I've tried 
searching on this, without much luck, but perhaps my search arguments 
are bad.  I'm not married to Ubuntu nor to VMware player.  If some other 
combination is known to work I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks in advance,

Greg