VPN on WM6.1

[acrh2]

Please help a newbie set up vpn on 6.1.

I have vpn working in XP and Vista on my desktop, and it works like this:
When I need to access my work's internal ips, I just use a vpn connection icon in "Network Connections" (XP), it connects to the work's vpn gateway, and all applications are now smart enough to recognize that they need to work through vpn to access those internal ips.
Everything works seamlessly.

WM6.1 seems to be totally complicated.

1) When I use something like PIE, it dials the phone's cell line (EVDO through Sprint), and I get internet connectivity.
But I never know if the connection is still active, or has been disconnected automatically due to idling. That seems to be a potential problem.

2) Under Settings/Connections/Advanced, I can set which connection is used for Internet and which connection is used "My work" etc.
When I edit the Internet connection, there's only an option to connect through a modem (Sprint cell line), no vpn.
But when I edit "My work", I can set both the modem and vpn.

Do I need to setup the modem part there?
How do I tell something like PIE that I want it to use the "My work" connection, and vpn in particular?


3) When I click and hold on vpn, I can select it to connect. The notification appears and goes away.
Can I even tell if the connection to vpn gateway was actually established?
Do I have to do this manually all the time?

4) The ultimate question: How do I make this thing work? I've not been able to successfully connect and use work's internal network yet...

Thanks.

[acrh2]

I was able to figure it out on my own.

1) Go to Settings/Connections/Advanced
2) Leave connecting to Internet (modem connection, cellular line Spint).
3) Edit the " My Work", and set up vpn inside that connection.
4) Go back to Advanced, and edit Exceptions to set up which addresses are to be used through the "My work" connection. These could be masks like *.domain.com/* or even *.*/*.
5) Specific applications like Outlook may already have an option to set which connection to use.

At this point, whenever PIE or Outlook try to hit a "work" ip, they will actually start up a vpn connection automatically, and everything will work.