Creating Website Restrictions

[realmike15]

Here's a post I hope some people will get a kick out of...

We're having a problem with a guy at work who is looking at porn all the time. He'll literally have 3-5 windows up at once, or be watching it full screen as you're walking by. This goes on for hours, and he's really bad at minimizing when he hears you coming.

Unfortunately, for reasons I'd rather not get into... management lets it go because he's not easily replaceable. I'm not trying to get him fired or anything, just want him to look for porn at home, like the rest of us.

I was wondering if there's any software out there that has a automatically updated list of porn sites, that can be blocked by installing it on computer. An AdBlock Plus of porn if you will...

The main reasons I want to stop this is:
1. We have about 20 people sharing a T1 line, and our connection becomes very slow anytime he's streaming his porn movies.

2. There's been quite a few viruses passed around our office, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was him clicking banner ads from porn sites. He's constantly getting virus notifications on his computer.

The guy is not very knowledgeable, I doubt he would know what was blocking him. He certainly wouldn't have the guts to complain for obvious reasons. I do have access to the server here, but I'd rather just load software onto his machine... the server is technically my bosses computer.

Please help!

 

[theevilsharpie]

[Insert NotSureIfSerious.jpg Here]

Perhaps you live in a country where laws are different, but in the US, a company could easily face a "hostile workplace" lawsuit if it knowingly allowed an employee to watch pornography on company time and equipment, particularly with others present. The employee could be the most technologically skilled person in the world, and they'd still be fired for that kind of behavior.

 

[theevilsharpie]

To answer your question, most web filtering services (WebSense et al.) keep a constantly updated list of adult web sites that you can configure your equipment to block. However, subscribing to these services and purchasing the hardware and software to use them costs a non-trivial amount of money for a small business.

 

[lxskllr]

Setup an OpenDNS account, and point his computer to their DNS servers. You'll have to look over their TOS carefully, but a quick look didn't forbid the free service from business use.

 

[TSDible]

Setup an OpenDNS account, and point his computer to their DNS servers. You'll have to look over their TOS carefully, but a quick look didn't forbid the free service from business use.

I would recommend OpenDNS as well.

It is even better if you can set the DNS servers on your router as well. That way, any computer on the network would be forced to use the settings.

I use OpenDNS, and it is quite effective.

With that many users, you may have to get some sort of business license, but the productivity gained may be worth it.

ETA: It seems that their Premium DNS for small/medium business is also free.

 

[CuriousMike]

K9 web protection on his machine.

 

[mechBgon]

Regarding the virus problem: if feasible, I suggest the steps here: http://www.mechbgon.com/security The best bang-for-the-buck steps would be the non-Admin user account combined with the Software Restriction Policy. It's pretty powerful. Any disk location he (or an exploit) can save a file to, he won't be able to run it. Anywhere he can run it from, he can't save it to. Gotcha!

The other steps would also be valuable: uninstall unnecessary stuff (especially Java), update the rest to the latest & greatest (Adobe Reader, Flash Player, browsers, media players, etc), stick 'em all on EMET's protected list, and so forth.

Setting OpenDNS at the router is a smart plan too. Password-protect the router's log-in so he can't get in there and revert it.

Also, if you could find several ancient 10-megabit hubs (hubs, not switches), connect his system to the network through one of those, and maybe have a couple others connected to eachother through "his" hub to just echo traffic back and forth ad infinitum. That ought to wreak havoc on his streaming.