Disappointing Day

[macsim]

I'm bummed out. Before I left work last week for the Grandfather Mt. Highland Games I cleared the cookies on my computer. Just a normal thing I do every so often. Came back today and I can't access half my bookmarks. The computer folks have decided what we can and cannot view while at work. Their option of course but it's very inconsistent. Here are examples:

Can access Rootsweb but not Genforum. (genealogy forums)
Picassa not Photoshow. (file storage, photos)
Bravehearts and Real Men Wear Kilts, the Telecaster Forum but not XMarks. (forums, kilts, music, etc.)
Cox Roost and Turris Fortis but not Albanach. (personal web sites, the second 2 both by Matt Newsome)

I already can't access personal e-mail and now during the slow times at work apparently I won't be able to access this site anymore. What's so mind-boggling is 2 sites that are very much the same like Bravehearts and XM and I can access the one I almost never use (Bravehearts) but I can't get to XM, my favorite online place. It wouldn't be so bad if it had any consistency at all but this seems a little ridiculous. I spend all day at the computer and the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time at home on it. Oh well, I'll check in when I can. Just blowing off steam. Walks away sadly........

[Panache]

Take a deep breath. Rest assured the good ship XMTS and it's wacky crew will be here when you can find the time to visit us.

Cheers

Jamie

[Brian F]

Well, I could offer some advice to get around your businesses web-blocks, but I don't want to post it here (only because I'm afraid it'll break the rules).

PM if you want the scoop.

~Yeti

[Warhoover]

Well, I could offer some advice to get around your businesses web-blocks.
~Yeti

Yeti,
Don't think for a moment your getting away with something. As a Systems Admin I can tell you, we know what "games" users try to get around things. As Archangel said you are observed. Logs are kept and checked, Gateway and NAT routers are monitored, believe me! I do it! Its part of my job. I get little alerts all the time from our system because of people trying to circumvent security.

You have to really want to ask yourself this, is it worth my career? Most companies can and will allow sites like Xmarks if you go through channels and access it on "your" time during lunch and such. But don't abuse this. We are having to even clamp down on some things even at a college.

Our students started believing that we were their personal ISP, heck I even had a student come into my office and asked that I allow gaming on the student wireless subnets so that he could could play to have something to do between his long wait between his two classes! Never mind doing classwork or researching an assignment, I politely refused and stated the reasons and policies and he still wanted to argue.

Remember your company, school, etc is paying for the bandwidth to do a certain functions. Being your personal ISP or portal to the outside is not one of them. It is a form of theft after all according to many companies these days and they do take it serious. Especially when security is involved. In this case it is better to be ask permission politely, rather than beg forgiveness, it may fall on deaf ears, ask the tenured professor that recently was packed up lock stock and barrel and shown the door at my college for violating this policy.

Kiltman, most of us don't think we are "gods" our job is to keep the company functioning. As you know if you were in the IT field it is a rather thankless job. We don't hear anything until a furball happens! No pats on the back for a good system just complaints. We are only making sure that the company does what it is supposed to do so that we can continue to have a job. Whether you believe it or not, the bandwidth is not free and it is not yours to do with as you will. It belongs to the company, cut and dried. Its there for the purpose of business and nothing else. What you do with your personal bandwidth at home is yours, how would you feel if your neighbors got your WAP keys and started using your bandwidth at home for what ever they wished and you could not do what you wanted be it "surfing" or gaming or what ever you do at home. A simple analogy but it makes the point.

[macsim]

Thanks for the tea and sympathy fellas (and I might try that Google suggestion - seems like I tried that successfully in the past). I know the company can do what they want. It's their stuff and their money after all. It's just that it was okay last week and if I hadn't deleted my cookies I probably could've still gotten on but I was trying to be a good employee and keep things running smoothly. The inconsistency bugs me. Two similar sites and two different results. I know they can see me. When we get monitored you can see everything on the screen and hear every word. But, I'm "the guy in the kilt" so no one thinks twice about me being on XM. It's always been okay there to be online as long as it doesn't interfere with your work, i.e. you're not surfing for football scores during a call. We are tied to our desks and cannot move around during the day so some distractions are allowed. Some days can be very slow so surfing XM keeps me sane. Oh well, I have time in the mornings while trying to get everyone else up and out so I'll have to adapt, adopt and improve. Onward and upward!

[kallen]

Mac, I know what ya mean.

The school system I used to work with did a "massive block" on many sites and I could access many of my sites.

I build models(mainly star trek...go figure) I could access one site, but not the big sci-fi model site.

A fellow teacher one day could access her gardening site, then next...no.
However, every crack-head gang-bang rapper site could be accessed...yet Rob Zombie couldn't.

You'll just have to spend more time on the comp. at home!!!

[emolas]

It could be you were locked out of xmarks and not the others BECAUSE you spend so much time here and not the other sites. URLs and bandwidth are monitored and frequently the sites with the most hits get excluded first.

Well, I could offer some advice to get around your businesses web-blocks, but I don't want to post it here (only because I'm afraid it'll break the rules).

PM if you want the scoop.

~Yeti

There are proxy sites that will load up any site you need in a frame that conceals the content you are viewing but, as Warhoover said, it's not worth your job. I have a rather vigorous proxy server here that cuts half the pics out of the posts on this site and limits any web pages with even vaguely objectionable tags. I have admin rights to the servers and I definately COULD circumvent the proxy server easily but the Powers That Be have decreed what we can and cannot view so I abide by it whether I agree with it or not.

You might want to ask permission to remove this site from the filter. It is non-offensive and shouldn't be considered a bother to anyone. At the very least, you can find out why it was added to the block list.

[macsim]

After talking to some other folks it seems the whole company was hit with a massive blockage of sites of all kinds. It's called Web-Sense and it supposedly blocks based on certain categories. A lot of people (not me) play games online, especially those who work the later shift when it can get really dead. I did try the Google thing since that seems innocent enough but even that didn't work. I have a feeling by the time they're done we won't be able to get on anything. I've been put on only 2 lines right now while one company is doing an open enrollment (I work for an insurance company at a call center). My calls have slowed down considerably because these folks don't apparently have a lot of questions about their coverage. It's S-L-O-W right now! At least I can still get on the Telecaster Forum (which again makes no web-sense because it has almost the exact appearance of XM and is the same kind of forum-type site). Oh well, at least they still let me wear kilts to the office.

[Riverkilt]

The folks at work know EVERY keystroke too. Not just in house email, but logging on to your own email from work...what you type, they can see if they choose to look.

As a good friend used to say, "Have fun, but pay attention."

Ron

[Sir Robert]

I remember having those wars before like being in the Army and not being able to access gun sites. Think about it.

I had some fun with it though, while working in the oil and gas industry our biggest customer was S&M Engineering Inc. Finally the IT guy got tired of me screaming at him, and I did every time WEBSENSE told me that S&M was a sex site. I finally got a straight hookup to the internet which is why I get to visit X-marks during daylight hours.