Corporate web-filtering; re-route internet traffic?
I know it's not Mac-specific, but I wasn't sure where else to turn to pose this question. I'm part of a large, multi-national company with what are typically liberal policies regarding personal internet use. Unfortunately, I'm relocating and joining a separate division of the company that was part of an acquisition where personal liberties are not as respected.
In any case, here's my question...
We are technically on the same WAN, since I can still access my internal servers/exchange server etc. with little or no trouble. Unfortunately, web access in the new location is restricted, and returns a filter warning/block message when I try to go to sites like APPLEINSIDER!!! Since I could access the web unrestricted from my old job site, and since those servers are available to me, is there any way to force web traffic to follow a path where it routes through the 'friendly' remote servers rather than the evil local ones?
I'm not surfing porn, and I get MY JOB DONE; my reviews are all impeccable. In my old job, there was no proxy and the monitoring that might have been done was not 'known', so I was free to use the web when/how I saw fit. There isn't that much I NEED to do on the web each day, but somehow the idea of being blocked has me obsessed with the notion of getting around this attack on my privacy.
Thanks in advance for any replies...
In any case, here's my question...
We are technically on the same WAN, since I can still access my internal servers/exchange server etc. with little or no trouble. Unfortunately, web access in the new location is restricted, and returns a filter warning/block message when I try to go to sites like APPLEINSIDER!!! Since I could access the web unrestricted from my old job site, and since those servers are available to me, is there any way to force web traffic to follow a path where it routes through the 'friendly' remote servers rather than the evil local ones?
I'm not surfing porn, and I get MY JOB DONE; my reviews are all impeccable. In my old job, there was no proxy and the monitoring that might have been done was not 'known', so I was free to use the web when/how I saw fit. There isn't that much I NEED to do on the web each day, but somehow the idea of being blocked has me obsessed with the notion of getting around this attack on my privacy.
Thanks in advance for any replies...
Comments
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
You do not want to be end-running your company. They have decided that those are the rules for internet usage, and you have to abide by them or work through the system to get them changed. Anything else is just asking to be fired.
Yeah, but sometimes the people in the IT department block sites that are needed by the employees, even if they think that they are not. I can't tell you how many times in my job I need to find out some useful information or a particular image for what I am doing and I get a server block because the original domain had been deemed to fall in one of the multiple categories that the IT department doesn't want to go through.
I find this corporate censorship is usually counter-productive to employess who don't abuse it. If you really wanted to, you could find something wrong with 99.9% of all domains on the web.
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
You do not want to be end-running your company. They have decided that those are the rules for internet usage, and you have to abide by them or work through the system to get them changed. Anything else is just asking to be fired.
I welcome being fired for something as trivial as buying my wife flowers at an online florist, expediting my Christmas shopping, or setting my Fantasy Football line-up. Wasting time at work isn't a function of tools, it's a function of personal discipline.
Not to mention, they won't fire me because they need me.
If you're going to make orange juice, and I offer you a basket full of large round oranges OR a basket full of small oranges, which basket would you choose to make the juice?
The Big one of course...
WRONG ANSWER. You've got to squeeze them first to see which one generates more juice. Same thing goes with employees. I manage personnel, and I can assure you I measure them on THEIR ACTUAL PERFORMANCE, not the APPEARANCE of performance.
I respect the opinion, and the warning, but using electronic means to 'monitor' or restrict employees reinforces COMPLIANT rather than COMMITTED behavior, which destroys creativity and creates an environment of people who do only the minimum.
I will fight it through both HR, Management, AND Electronic means.
They block this site at my work, but it's worth a shot...
http://www.guardster.com/subscription/proxy_free.php
Originally posted by Sport73
There isn't that much I NEED to do on the web each day, but somehow the idea of being blocked has me obsessed with the notion of getting around this attack on my privacy.
You're kidding right? It's not an attack on your privacy. They are paying you for your time. You have very limited privacy related to your job, and when you use their property they get to decide whether or not you can access it for your own personal use.
If you worked in a retail store, could you take money from the till to do your shopping for your wife? If you were a delivery person should you be able to use a company vehicle to go shopping for your wife? Why would you think it would be different to use the company's computers, internet, network, etc to shop for your wife?
I respect the opinion, and the warning, but using electronic means to 'monitor' or restrict employees reinforces COMPLIANT rather than COMMITTED behavior, which destroys creativity and creates an environment of people who do only the minimum.
I will fight it through both HR, Management, AND Electronic means.
Fight it all you want, but if you violate your companies policies because you think they are "restrictive," they can, and SHOULD fire you.
Believe me, no company needs you as much as you think they do. Everyone can be replaced.
If your day suffers because not legitimately useful, job related searches for your own private, personal interests cannot be accessed on company owned machines, suck it up and learn to do your private business on your private machines and time.
Corporate owned machines (and network pipe), and the data on them are the property of the company. They own your email on that machine. There is no privacy component other than trade secrets and proprietary corporate information, which you probably signed off on protecting.
Just like you wouldn't be allowed to make personal long distance calls on the company's dime, why should you be allowed to make personal web use of their dime? If they're not willing to fund your calls to aunt mae, why should they fund your FTD visits for her? It's about the work, not the private time.
Stop whining. It's their office policy... either ask to have it changed and make a reasonable business case for why, or quit.
Meh... grumpy until more coffee... sorry if that came off harsh, but OBJRA10 is on the right track...