Office has router with 2 “load balanced” lines.
1. 94.www.xxx.yyyy (sub: 255.255.254.0, gate: 94.e.f.g)
2. 87.zzz.aaa.bbbb (sub: 255.255.252.0, gate: 87.g.h.i)

Bruce house:
1. 94.iii.jjj.kkk (sub: 255.255.254.0, gate: 94.e.f.g)

Jason house:
1. 87.kkk.lll.mmm (sub: 255.255.252.0, gate: 87.g.h.i)

(all three sites are in close proximity and are connected at the same exchange!)

Bruce house can successfully ping office1, but fails to ping office2. (works only on the one that shares a gateway at both ends)
Jason house can successfully ping office2, but fails to ping office1. (works only on the one that shares a gateway at both ends)

I can only assume that when the router tries to respond to the ping, it is sending it out through the wrong line so it is failing.

We have worked around the VPN problem by creating a VPN from Jason house to Office2.
Bruce house has a VPN to Office1.

If Bruce tries to VPN to Office2, or Jason to Office1 it fails.

Does any of this make sense, I’m getting beyond my level of understanding !!

Is this expected behaviour? A bug in the router? Something else?