Internet filter RANT

[BigJohnKC]

Okay, after driving for an hour and 45 minutes in snow this morning I get to work to find out they have added a few more lists to the banned sites on the company proxy server. Since we are forced to go through this proxy for "security" reasons, I now cannot go to any humor, sports, or entertainment web sites. I tried to get my Daily Dilbert email, but when I went to www.dilbert.com I was denied access. No access to espn.com either. This sucks! Thank God they didn't ban Anandtech forums or I wouldn't have anything to do at work......

 

[guyver01]

well.. you can always try a subscription to Anonymizer.com, unless they banned that site too

 

[BigJohnKC]

<< well.. you can always try a subscription to Anonymizer.com, unless they banned that site too >>



Quote:

Access Denied
The requested document, http://www.anonymizer.com/, will not be shown.

Reason: Found in Denied List (Alcohol-Tobacco, Crime, Drugs/Advocacy, Drugs/Non-medical, E/Games, E/Sports, Gambling, Humor, Interactive/Chat, Interactive/Mail, Intolerance, Job Search, Occult/New Age, Religion, Sex/Acts, Sex/Attire, Sex/Nudity, Sex/Personals, SexEd/Advanced, SexEd/Basic, SexEd/Sexuality, Vehicles, Violence, Weapons). Entry causing block is anonymizer.com.



wow.

 

[AnthraX101]

My (old) high school had banned site lists, and we put up a CGI proxy feed in to fix it Every time they banned it, we would just rename the DNS entry.

Our school decided to add executable files to the filter eventualy, and so they baned *.exe, *.bat, *.zip, and...you guessed it...*.com

Whee!

Armani

 

[BigJohnKC]

<< My (old) high school had banned site lists, and we put up a CGI proxy feed in to fix it Every time they banned it, we would just rename the DNS entry. >>


I guess I must have been in high school before proxy servers were around then - I remember guys looking up pr0n on the library computers, which if I remember right were Macintosh IIc's, maybe I'm wrong. I think we had a few of the early Performa series boxes in there, but they were expensive so the school wouldn't buy many.

Well, I guess no fun for me, eh?

 

[SaltBoy]

How about Babelfish?

I always translate my "banned" sites from Japanese to English, and it works out great!

 

[BigJohnKC]

<< How about Babelfish?

I always translate my "banned" sites from Japanese to English, and it works out great! >>



Yeah, works, but no graphics show up......not worthwhile when trying to view a DIlbert comic strip.

 

[pulse8]

<< Job Search >>



That amused me. I guess they don't want you looking for new work on company time.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

<< or I wouldn't have anything to do at work...... >>



How about actually working?

 

[guyver01]

<< Vehicles >>



i guess too many people looking for new cars at work?

 

[BigJohnKC]

<<

<< or I wouldn't have anything to do at work...... >>



How about actually working? >>




umm..yeah. See, there's this concept in communication that we like to call sarcasm....

 

[Pepsei]

there's no way my company will ban espn even thou it has no 'business value'

too many nascar fans in the upper management (*cringe in fear*)

they did ban ebay thou.... I guess i sold too many imaginary internet game items...

 

[BigJohnKC]

<<

<< Job Search >>



That amused me. I guess they don't want you looking for new work on company time. >>


Yeah, I liked that one too. I'm guessing this is the entire list. Not surprising anonymizer was on all the lists that are banned. Filter software companies are a bit vindictive like that. I remember back in college they used CyberPatrol. One time I found a news story about a small group of people who wrote a crack to the software and CyberPatrol quickly fixed it and put out a new banned site list. The crackers' website was on every possible banned list that the software offered. Seems a shane they can add any site they want.

 

[BigJohnKC]

<< there's no way my company will ban espn even thou it has no 'business value'

too many nascar fans in the upper management (*cringe in fear*)

they did ban ebay thou.... I guess i sold too many imaginary internet game items... >>



Wow, I just checked and eBay is not banned. Must have business value....