Rule-based routing to resources through a network

Abstract

Techniques for determining which resource access requests are handled locally at a remote computer, and which resource access requests are routed or 'redirected' through a virtual private network. One or more routing or 'redirection' rules are downloaded from a redirection rule server to a remote computer. When the node of the virtual private network running on the remote computer receives a resource access request, it compares the identified resource with the rules. Based upon how the identified resource matches one or more rules, the node will determine whether the resource access request is redirected through the virtual private network or handled locally (e.g., retrieved locally from another network). A single set of redirection rules can be distributed to and employed by a variety of different virtual private network communication techniques.