i'm upset, now I have to find something else to do when I'm at my desk.

Or more to the point the range of browsing at lunchtimes is getting small

resign.

asap.

get an iphone or similar.

Have you tried .co.uk?

Just go through a proxy server website like http://www.youhide.com and you can beat your companys blocking softwear 😉

sounds great Grimy, clicked the link and got an ad saying "Find someone to **** in Altrincham Tonight" I call that more likley to get me fired.

Was trying on my E75 but cant get the login to work properly

Just go through a proxy server website like http://www.youhide.com and you can beat your companys blocking softwear

Daft idea. If they take misuse seriously your IT dept will know sooner or later. Making a deliberate attempt to circumvent blocking software may well be a disciplinary matter in its own right, regardless of what site you're trying to get to or what time you're doing it.

We used to have WebSense at work which was utterly rubbish, it seemed to block all kinds of random sites for no good reason. I remember trying to book a fork service from TFTuned and it wouldn't let me onto it cos it said "WebSense category: Vehicles"
Fortunately they removed it after a while as it was just too much like hard work to monitor, now they have fairly open access policy so long as no-one takes the piss too much.

There is a direct proxy address for STW which circumvents it though… 😉

you're lucky I got pulled up for using STW at work …..

we **think** that it pushes adds, so as I used to leave it open the work counter clicked away….

anyway turned into a fiasco
1 – I asked if it was a time issue or a cost issue, they went awfully silent when I said what about people who take 10 fags breaks a day ….
2 – even better I got pulled up again, and really laid into, I then pointed out since the last dicussion that I'd used only work sites, so they thrust the stats into my face, I calmly pointed out that the web adresss was indeed singletrackwork however thet the login that was using it wasn't me, you could have heard an insulated feather drop … then they apologised….

same has happened to me…
The .co.uk appears to work but then all the links from the forum go back to .com and get stopped.

Time for an iPhone (other phones are available)…

I work for a company whos IT policy states

"We monitor incoming data if it comes from a source known to be malicious. No other network use is monitored. No restrictions apply."

Ace.

Did they cut down a tree across yor trail or something ?

i hate all this network monitoring stuff. Its not China ffs.

It people do their job well and don't offend anyone i don't see the problem.

I'm not allowed to use any webmail or social networking sites (presumably a knee jerk reaction after facebook kept appearing in the news). i can't access any website with a https suffix, which means i can't log into work related forums. I can email friends but they monitor work emails with some awful software and it can take a day for the email to arrive. Mobiles are supposed to be switched off too. the computers are fully locked down, can't install anything or change any settings. We're not even allowed to use anything more recent than IE 6!

We're supposed to be programmers and its immensely frustrating. Something as simple as having to use Notepad rather than Textpad is annoying enough.

Historically its an engineering company that now develops software and the management have yet to catch up.

i hate all this network monitoring stuff. Its not China ffs.

But it is! its not the state you need to fear spying on you, its the corporations – dont get a ever Nectar card!

kill them

Ah – Websense – was the bane of my life when I worked for a publishing company – liked to block all of our suppliers websites and universities too. Not great when you are trying to find contacts….

You think your place is bad! You should try mine…..

We're not even allowed to use anything more recent than IE 6!

I thought it was just us stuck in the dark ages like that! By the sounds of things you don't work for the same company as me either, since I can do https (they have a secure proxy server, so can see anything you send over that).

That of course is on our main secure network – I do still have access to the unsecure network, where nothing is blocked, and I can use Firefox 🙂

Students used to use mobile firefox on a USB pen drive to get around the college firewall. Not sure how it worked but it did.

Right, I'm sure this is all very frustrating for you all but lets look at it from the other side. One of the things I do for a living is stop people accessing all these websites. I'm not going to try and justify your companies security policies as some do sound a little draconian but as an small introduction.

In those businesses that allow access, Facebook in particular is responsible for eating up more bandwidth than any other destination. Bandwidth isn't free and it's also being used for business applications so the Facebook access affects business traffic, sometimes significantly. As an example, my company has a 100Mb internet pipe, at dinner time, facebook takes up to 80% of that bandwidth if left unfettered.

Webmail, what a brilliant way to bring viruses into the system. The links are typically encrypted so virus scanning doesn't happen till the files arrive on an individuals desktop. With new viruses, it's now too late to stop propagation. And cleanup after a virus has run wild in a corporate environment, is very expensive.

Other popular sites, many companies will monitor the bandwidth use and block the top hitters, again, sound business practise.

At the end of the day, you're not at home, you're at work and you're using company resources to pretty much do what you want *rather* than working, that's how the business will see it and it's quite reasonable for them to tell their IT people to tighten things up a bit if they feel people are taking the mick. And if you give some people an inch they will run and run with it.

Samuri let me shorten that for you "You're there to do a **** job not surf the web all day."

All reasonable points, samuri – I'm really glad they ban stuff like facebook, since the network is lacking bandwidth and rubbish as it is!

Though given your contribution, is now the right time to mention that AFAIK the only people to be sacked at my place for internet abuse were people doing network monitoring like you (they were downloading loads of porn)? 😈

sounds great Grimy, clicked the link and got an ad saying "Find someone to **** in Altrincham Tonight" I call that more likley to get me fired.

Was trying on my E75 but cant get the login to work properly

I do apologise Mike, I couldnt think of a good proxy server site of the top of my head and just google searched for one. That one seemed resonable as the blocking softwear we have at work when i posted the message had filtered out the unsafe advert. But you get the idea all the same. If your company are reasonable and the softwear is just a little over zelous, then using a proxy server wont cause any upset. just find one thats a little cleaner. 😳

HoratioHufnagel – you at a rather large aerospace company, by any chance? Sounds similar to my place.

Anyway, from what I remember, you can put the IP address in of the site you want to view & that gets round many filters as long as the address bar doesn't resolve it for you.

RDP or WebRDP into your home PC or use free software like logmein. Job done.

HoratioHufnagel
or the nuclear industry perhaps