I hate surfing the web

[300Busa]

They are blocked at my office also. I just installed firefox and get there that way.

 

[Busa Jules]

I work at a SCHOOL! Everything is blocked (except

the .org!) but when they do finally get around to blocking it, I have plenty of nice sites to go to to get around it!

Not that I am EVER on the .org when I should be teaching the future of our nation about the Laws of Motion

 

[thrasherfox]

I have plenty of nice sites to go to to get around it!

Yeah.. you might want to read my somewhat tounge in cheek and somewhat serious post above in regards to anonymous proxy's

 

[Mr Bogus]

They are blocked at my office also. I just installed firefox and get there that way.

more than likely script blocking, not site blocking then.... sites are blocked at a firewall or DNS server

 

[99'busa]

While I can sympathize with both sides of this issue, honestly it can be a problem

The bottom line is if no one is complaing about the speed of the network and no one is complaing that "well all Joe does is surf the net all day while I work!! it isnt fair!!" (you know, the employees that are jelous) then companies usually dont tighten the screws too much.

However, if someone is trying to do their job and it takes forever for an app to open, or to access a web site for research, they start to complain they cant do their job, management then looks at it and starts putting the screws on to the IT department to fix the problem.

The IT department looks at it and thinks "hmmm well all we can do is start cutting out access to big bandwidth sites.

So often anything that is graphic intensive (pictures, but mainly video and streaming video) will be the first to go.

IT's don't care because we normally have our own personally configured systems on the other side of the DMZ, or that bypasses the firewall, so we can put the screws to everyone else without impacting ourselves, and in the end that's all that really matters..

And we can do this because we are IT's and we know what we can and cant do without jeopardizing company assets. Besides, we are good at multitasking, I can talk on the phone at the same time handle a user who comes to my desk while still playing a game, reviewing a document, and downloading patches all at the same time. I am more productive in one day than most are in a week.


Ehem.. anyway.

Then if an IT blocks a site and we notice a user trying to circumvent our block or try to get around our wall, we now take that as a personal challenge to our IT technical skills, we will now focus on you like a tiger focus's on its prey.

We will monitor, hunt and stalk your every electronic move and block ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that we personally deem not work related.

And the more we block, the more the user takes it as a challenge, so they start to try to find other ways to get around our system. Until they finally find the Holy Grail!!! ---  ANNONYMOUS PROXY SERVERS!!!

Oh dayum!! When a user finds out what a annonymous proxy server is!! Oh man they are now empowered.

It will usually take a while for the IT department to find out that you are using a proxy server (or at least it might SEEM you are getting away with something they don't know about) the truth is, we IT's, we know about proxy servers, we will let you use them for awhile, because we know when you use a proxy server to logon to Myspace, or to your yahoo account, or to your bank account, what is happening most of the time is the people who run the proxy server are gathering all your personal information that travels through it.

You think people put up free proxy servers for you to use out of the goodness of their hearts? Come one doint be so neive. It takes money to build the proxy servers, maintain them, pay for the bandwidth, nothing is free in this world, they have to be getting something out of you using their proxy servers. And guess what it is. Like I just mentioned, all your personal information that travels through it.

So we will let you user a proxy server for awhile, and the next thing you know someone has hacked your myspace account!!! Crap how did that happen!! Someone accessed your bank account!! Ut oh!! Someone access your yahoo email account and sent out spam email from your account!!!

Someone purchased child pornography using the bank account you logged onto through the proxy server and now the police are at your door trying to arrest you!!!

So anyway, after letting you hang yourself for a few weeks going through a proxy server the fun is now out of it for us so we will usually block that one proxy server and find something else productive and entertaining to do.

See to us IT's, everything is a game, we have the power and we know it, it is just most of the world doesn't, so we play, we have fun.

We do our job, don't get me wrong and we do it well but come-on when you have a bunch of whiney users complaining every stinking day that their fricken computer wont read a DVD (well crap it only has a CD reader, it never had a DVD reader) or their computer keeps re-booting (hmmmm finally went to a bad web site that we told you to stay away from and the web site installed a virus and has now crashed your system and you are pissed because you cant go and flirt on myspace on company time, oh dang that sucks).

So yeah, being an IT is a thankless job, no one likes us, the system is too slow and we are not doing our job, so we lock things down, and now we are NAZI's because we have blocked everything and no one can get to anything.

It is a no win situation, so as an IT when you realize no matter what you do, you are going to piss someone off, you might as well enjoy your job, do it to the best of your ability and let the cards fall where they may.

Dang dude. How long does it take you to type these novels

Are you at work?

 

[Busaman5000]

<div class="iF-Passage"><div class="QUOTEHEAD">Quote:[/Quote]<div class="QUOTE clearfix"><span class="quoteBegin"> </span>
ANNONYMOUS PROXY SERVERS![/quote]

lol, I found that trick at work. But unfortunately it didnt last long! I can still access the org, but most of my other favorite sites are down. Its only a matter of time before this place is blocked then, well, I guess I'll have to get back to work.

 

[99'busa]

get off the web and get to work

 

[Wag]

I get 10 times more work done now than I did 10 years ago. That includes the limited amount of time I do spend on the internet. I don't surf for **** at work and I don't go on web sites.

Not any more, at least!

I don't get a paycheck that's 10 times higher, though. Not even double. Thanks to computers though, they only one guy, not 3 or 4, even in the new efficient computer economy.

--Wag--

 

[theskaz]

<- IT guy also.

everything that is not harmful to the computer or **** is open here. my job requires me to sit here for hours on end and watch for clustered, loadbalanced, redundant, expensive server to fail. doesnt really happen. so i has a ton of free time

short story:

While in Iraq i was an administrator for MOSS 2007. well that being relatively new and my qualifications being that i can spell computr. i was thrown into the "dev team" well we needed a ton of research and other crap to get these servers the way the COs wanted. during the day any site that did not end in .mil was blocked. that included microsoft.com, technet, and others. since i was not in the unit that denied/granted access to these sites i was SOL. i didnt know anyone either so i couldnt get a hookup.

ok so here comes the "challenge" that thrasher was talking about, it was between me(network engineer) and the firewall team.

i had my mother in law set up a ubuntu server at her house and give me her external ip address. i laso talked her through on how to but that server into a DMZ on her router. when she installed ubuntu she also installed openssh.

i had a copy of putty on me and used that to try to connect to that server on port 22. no luck. port 22 is blocked at teh firewall. ok, had her change the port openssh used to 80. the firewall team cant block that one. tried it, no dice. something like "an encrypted connection cannot be supported on port 80". ok well i know what port can handle encryption. so i had her change the port again to 443. success!!!! so i remotely install squid and dante. set squid up and used putty's port tunneling feature to forward port 3128 through that ssh connection. went into my browser and ponted the proxy to "localhost:3128" and walla unrestriced internet . they never figured it out. used it for 8 months.

also here at work i use sockscap to tunnel gaming apps to my home server and it allows me to play just about any game here at work. GOD i love my job.

 

[theskaz]

ok someone rezzed this thread and then post was deleted. i didnt notice the previous dates. sorry

 

[semi]

we only have intranet at work...no internet, no e-mail, no surfing, etc...all my playing on here is on my own time, i apparently don't have a life

 

[workin_ike]

Well, I get to surf all day, and wait for things to happen. I do Building Security for FedEx and my job is to sit and wait for things to happen, and while waiting we surf. So, in a way, surfing the net is my job. When things do happen I dont let the net get in the way though.

 

[flybybusa]

...
So yeah, being an IT is a thankless job, no one likes us, the system is too slow and we are not doing our job, so we lock things down, and now we are NAZI's because we have blocked everything and no one can get to anything.

It is a no win situation, so as an IT when you realize no matter what you do, you are going to piss someone off, you might as well enjoy your job, do it to the best of your ability and let the cards fall where they may.

Everybody loves the SQL guys!

 

[Trashy]

Kristin has a good point. Both sides of this issue need to step back and take a look at themselves.

Employees - how many of you can honestly say you give 8 hrs work? Your employer doesn't owe it to you to keep you entertained. They don't even need to keep you challenged. You were hired to perform a task and in return get a paycheck.

Employers - nothing seems to matter but the balance sheet. Happy emplyees = happy customers = good profits. The company that is the perennial top rated company by Forbes or Money or JD Power - Wegman's Grocery put their people first. 3 of the 5 items listed directly reference their employees, including the first one. Business needs to stop meaning money and mean people. I don't mean that they should make every work day a party, but treat people like people, not a resource.

I know that I spend time chatting with my co-workers, surfing a bit and other non-work stff. Yes, my slow times definitely even out with the busy times. Right now things are a little slow, but there will be weeks sometimes months at a time that I eat lunch at my desk because the work is so deep.

So, the .oRg is now blocked. Well, I really shouldn't be surfing at work anyway. Kind of like a speeding ticket - was I speeding? probalby so I deserve a ticket

My Dad told all of us, "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." He was right. :yes:

 

[Takeuon]

I have to go through "logs" weekly to see what "staffers" are viewing on the Internet... I am then left to physically block these sites as they are deemed "not for work" (and I know who is looking at what and I also have to report on what I find to clients)

I am afraid I have no sympathy for the issue at a couple levels.. Productivity: if your company can not find work for you to do, they need to eliminate the position IMHO.. We are fighting an economy that is bloated with way to many people doing little or nothing and collecting pay checks.. At the same time, your job ends up in MX or China because they get 10 times the work done for the same or less money..

I mean if you can sit there and go "I do very little" dont you worry about having the position eliminated?

Honestly "I am upset because I can not screw around at work and surf the net" is exactly what is wrong with our economy right now...

Funny coming from someone with almost 18,000 posts and I see logged on almost all day every day

 

[greyrocket]

if you have a I-phone that works. but its not the same as my 37" Samsung lcd

 

[Kamsin]

I know this is going too sound a little stupid, But when your at work arnt you supposed to er WORK....

Our company has just taken steps to block Non work related sites, THANK GOD....why cos too many time's you go into the office to hand paper work in to find the staff surfing "facebook" or "youtube" Now drivers that have been out on the road for 10 to 15 hours dont want to stand around waiting for people to finish chatting to friends on bloody line. Sour grapes i hear you say, no not at all they will let the phones ring and ring without blinking an eye while they scan page after page after page, looking for gossip. Now this is wide spread in our company, the servers are ramed to the hilt with personal photos and pictures, all slowing the rest of the company down. This includes orders that are coming in that need to be shipped out.

Oh did i forget to mention i work for a Drugs distribution company that sends out emergency drugs to hospitals and Doctors as soon as they phone for them.This includes cancer treatment and Blood plasmer, it sort of looks different now. Could you imagine a Doctor trying to get Drugs to keep you alive and not being able to cos some dim wit is sufing the WEB.
Surf when you get home..Pleaselease:

 

[Takeuon]

I know this is going too sound a little stupid, But when your at work arnt you supposed to er WORK....

Our company has just taken steps to block Non work related sites, THANK GOD....why cos too many time's you go into the office to hand paper work in to find the staff surfing "facebook" or "youtube" Now drivers that have been out on the road for 10 to 15 hours dont want to stand around waiting for people to finish chatting to friends on bloody line. Sour grapes i hear you say, no not at all they will let the phones ring and ring without blinking an eye while they scan page after page after page, looking for gossip. Now this is wide spread in our company, the servers are ramed to the hilt with personal photos and pictures, all slowing the rest of the company down. This includes orders that are coming in that need to be shipped out.

Oh did i forget to mention i work for a Drugs distribution company that sends out emergency drugs to hospitals and Doctors as soon as they phone for them.This includes cancer treatment and Blood plasmer, it sort of looks different now. Could you imagine a Doctor trying to get Drugs to keep you alive and not being able to cos some dim wit is sufing the WEB.
Surf when you get home..Pleaselease:

Well not all of us have quite the important job you do fighting cancer and sending blood plasmER? sp?

*sent from my office while surfing*

 

[TommyGunn1300]

use a proxy site... then nothing is blocked