The VPN *is* connecting through the network. The problem is the VPN software is effectively firewalling everything but the VPN endpoint to the rest of the system.

I assume you can't even ping the printer's IP?

I had a similar issue (on Windows) with a Nortel VPN client. My solution was a USB cable from the docking station to the printer (as Glenn suggested). Fortunately our new VPN software doesn't have this limitation (although I do have to kill the firewall to access my NAS).