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outsmart work internet grinches

H

hornetguy

New Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2005
Messages
100
Location
just north of DFW Texas
Does anyone know of a backdoor type of entrance to the forum? One that doesn't mention tobacco in any way? We have internet nazis at my workplace that are censoring selected sites. I've found that anything that mentions cigars or guns/shooting is not allowed. Of course, I can go look at all the Nascar, or mindless sports sites I want.. :rolleyes:

I can get on Herfer's Paradise, and on Cigar-ettecity's site, but most of the others, including this one flag "big brother"....

Any suggestions?
 
Well, as an ex network guy I have to say they they are watching you already as those are very narrow filters, guns and tobacco.. Did they know you surfed those sites?

the network admin will be able to see the traffic if you get in another way if you are connected to his network.. (if he is paying attention, which he may be if they are filtering)

The filtering probably is at the router, although they can be using a host file to keep you out of the sites..

its easy to use for filtering spam sites or whatever.

Do a search in "host files" to get more info on them.. you can edit those if you run as admin on your PC.

Its hard to say in your situation without knowing anything about the network you are on, or the hardware and so on..
 
Some of those filters are rediculous. However, it is your company's network and internet connection, so they can decide how it should be used and select as rediculous a filter as they wish.

If you are really intent on doing this, google "anonymizer" or "proxy server". The idea is that you surf the web through another server. On that hopefully your company has not identified as a bad host.

The trouble is that if they catch on to you doing this, they will probably track your activity with greater scrutiny than ever before.
 
MonkeyK said:
Some of those filters are rediculous. However, it is your company's network and internet connection, so they can decide how it should be used and select as rediculous a filter as they wish.

If you are really intent on doing this, google "anonymizer" or "proxy server". The idea is that you surf the web through another server. On that hopefully your company has not identified as a bad host.

The trouble is that if they catch on to you doing this, they will probably track your activity with greater scrutiny than ever before.
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Ditto this route. If you are flagged for attempting to access a certain site though is hit or mis. If you are in a large corporate enviornment, the IT guys proabably don't have time to look at a print out of accounts that hit the brick wall trying to access different restricted sites. Sure they could, but the IT department is usually busy enough with important matters. I am sure certain porn IP addresses are flagged, but cigars and tobacco probably aren't. Good luck.

Emo
 
I wish some of those loophole sites actually worked here at school. All the sites I have tried are blocked by Bess. Thankfully I can come here and a few other sites. But most cigar related sites are blocked.
 
I work for a large healthcare corporation and they too use some heavy duty filtering. I have gotten around it with proxy or virtual srevers. The problem I have is I am able to browse sites like this one, Ebay etc., but I am unable to log on whith a password and username. So I am able to look, but unable to post.
 
Don't want to be a party pooper, but do be careful no matter what you do.

My best friend back home in Indiana just lost his job by bypassing the filters and blocks set up by his company. Not sure what methods he used, but he wasn't doing anything other than going to a few gun/hunting forums and sending some outside e-mails (some to me :( ). His manager sympathized, but the rules were the rules and THE boss has a zero tolerance for that sort of thing.

Just something to think about. . .
 
Yeah I would have to agree... if you are not supposed to be doing it you might want to not do it.
 
I know I have had to block some dating sites from our PC's at the shop once.

If I were to catch the person using my time trying to find a date when they should be working, I would have to let them go.
 
1st: I work as a netword admin at a company. We look at site hits monthly and the sties that are top 10 and not business related start getting blocked one by one. I am willing to believe the used the logs and banned a few of your favorites that were huge hits more then banned or filters cigar and gun sites.

2nd: its easy! just set up your home cpu (windows XP) to allow Remote desktop access. Then just connect to your home via Remote desktop and use ITS browser and internet to connect. Your work site will only see IP connection and activity as you are using your home computer to surf the net.

direction to set this up are easily found on the internet searches using REMOTE ACCESS or REMOTE DESKTOP and pretty straight forward.
 
I was waiting for someoneto bring up the RDP. In the Coast Guard we use it quite a bit. You need a little savvy to configure the computer and the firewall. Best of luck.

Emo
 
Unfortunately at my work the firewall blocks everything besides 80, 8080, and whatever port ftp is (I forget).

For the web ports, the firewall filters by user agent string, so unless it's the exact right version of Netscape or IE, you're not getting through. So for example Firefox won't work, except I found a couple of ways around that (there is a FF plugin that lets you specify whatever UA string you want, so I just figured out what the IE UA string is, and told FF to use that. But I just did that for fun cos I use Crazy Browser anyway)

They figure other than that you're on your own, and while all web hits are logged, they don't actually peruse the logs unless someone like your manager asks them to.

I've opened the occasional porn link or gambling site, but if it's just one or two hits spread far apart no recrimination.

There's no way you could remotely log in to another machine. Except maybe by telnet...I think I heard that's open too but I've never gotten it to work. Besides the best you could do via a telnet terminal is lynx...ugh.
 
I'll try this again.. .my first reply disappeared on me..

I appreciate all the advice... it looks like it's gonna end up Company-1 cigar smoker-0......

It just burns my ass that cigarette smokers can stroll outside every 30-40 minutes for a 5-10 minute leisurely smoke, and all the sports/fantasy football/Nascar/golfers can surf any web site they desire, but I can't even access a cigar site during my slack time.

Ok.... no more ranting... thanks again, guys...
 
LilBastage said:
Don't want to be a party pooper, but do be careful no matter what you do.

My best friend back home in Indiana just lost his job by bypassing the filters and blocks set up by his company. Not sure what methods he used, but he wasn't doing anything other than going to a few gun/hunting forums and sending some outside e-mails (some to me :( ). His manager sympathized, but the rules were the rules and THE boss has a zero tolerance for that sort of thing.

Just something to think about. . .
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Food for thought, guys....yes, filtering in many cases is a real pain in the ass and often blocks sites that are far from "harmful". But - intentionally bypassing the firewall or filters installed on a corporate network is grounds for termination in many compaines these days (like mine). We're lucky in that the blocked sites are pretty much known hacker / virus engine sites, not guns, hunting, cigars, etc. It's a little naive to think that "...it's a big company, they don't have time to look at the logs..." because there are "alarms" on logging software where the activity itself is what draws attention to your surfing.

Do what you gotta do, but be aware of the possible consequences.

My $00.02 - B.B.S.
 
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