Recently set up a VPN (Cisco AnyConnect) on my Personal Computer at home. Earlier today my company sent out an email saying don’t stream, play games, or browse while on the VPN, and that they will be monitoring capacity from an overall usage standpoint. Would they be able to tell if I was playing a game? Or streaming Youtube or even see my browsing data?
Yes, your company will absolutely be able to tell if you’re streaming videos, playing games, or browsing because all of the traffic from your computer is being routed through your corporate VPN which is monitored.
Depending on your company, you may even have some screen recording software on your computer. If you feel the need to do any of these things while at work, it is always best to do it on a secondary device.
Finally, because more people are being asked to work from home due to COVID-19, companies VPNs will be experiencing higher than usual load. Your IT department is probably wanting to make sure your company’s VPN doesn’t shit the bed while staff are transitioning to working from home.
If you’re using the VPN to securely connect to your work systems, yes. Once you connect to the work network, all your outbound internet traffic then effectively starts from their servers, so they can see everything you do.
Edit: playing games isn’t ‘working from home’ 
Pro tip, go get a cheap laptop and use that for work
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There were some really good answers here too for a similar question. All good discussions with so many people working from home - perhaps for the first time!
https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/fj3476/will_my_pc_activity_be_exposed_to_my_company/
Depends. If it’s set up as a tunnel no they won’t. But if it’s just a straight VPN connection then yes. Best way to test is open a browser and search ‘what’s my IP’ see what it is, then connect to work. Refresh the browser and if it changes all your traffic is being routed through your work.
I can’t help but think that with the influx of new remote employees there will be some acceptance from management that understands that in-office employees aren’t familiar with ability and protocol of vpn. There will probably be a notable percentage of new remote employees slacking off in some way who don’t know or don’t have the foresight to ask on reddit how exactly they are monitored. Surely they won’t punish all of them for every occurrence but you have the advantage of knowing this in full so you can make decisions accordingly.
This is why we can’t have nice things…
Cant you just only connect when you’re actively working?
Depends. Do you work for Facebook or NSA?
They can see the traffic load so pretty much yes, however it is important to not look at this in a self-protective way like “can they see what I’m doing”
It is important to approach this in a social way. In a simple way explained: The number of people using the VPN is insanely high, since all traffic is routed through the VPN infrastructure. Since the load on the network is already high with normal/office related traffic, a few people using youtube and what not, is pretty much a gigantic dick move.
If you want to be a cool person, look up split tunnel. Let your work related stuff go through the VPN and stream/game on your personal network.
In times like these it is not only important to stay safe, but also think about the bigger picture.
Ceiling company is watching you.
I’m wondering the same thing. Recently started working from home on my own PC and had to download our VPN (Pulse). When signed into Pulse we can then sign into a virtual desktop. Can they see what I’m doing when I’m not in the virtual desktop? Or can they see all of my browsing when I’m signed into the VPN? I’m not familiar with this at all. My IP address is the same when I’m not signed in and when I’m signed in if that matters at all.
This all depends if they are routing all traffic through the vpn. It is an option on firewalls. Do a what’s my ip and see if its your ip that comes up
Need a second computer specifically for work so you can play games at home
This is not entirely correct. Tunneling all traffic has to be explicitly set on the firewall for them to monitor you
I don’t know if this really works
It does work. You are doing things the correct way.
Whats your preferred method of creating a Virtual Machine? My understanding is that there’s a few ways to do it but I’m not very knowledgeable about that area.
It might be useful if the mods stuck a post at the top with a “working from home” FAQ.