Hbt blocked!

[dougdecinces]

Sad news from the corporate world. Homebrewtalk has been blocked on my work computer. Not only that, but pretty much every other homebrew site I've searched in the past is blocked. It happened suddenly today. One minute I was looking up on no-chill brewing; the next, banishment. I liked being able to research techniques, get advice, and work on my recipes while at work. But apparently the corporate gods have other plans for me.

 

[daksin]

Sounds like somebody's been monitoring your browsing activities. At least it won't be blocked on your phone (as long as you're not using the company's wifi).

Personally, though, if my employer didn't trust me to use their time in a responsible manner and monitored what I was doing on my lunch breaks, I'd look for alternative options.

That's not to say you should quit your job over HBT, but it may speak other issues at play.

 

[passedpawn]

There is a secret way to get to HBT, with a harmless domain that I'm sure wouldn't get blocked, but it's for members only. And it doesn't work now, so don't rush off and spend $25 yet.

 

[arturo7]

Quit yer bvtchin' and get back to work!

 

[GodsStepBrother]

I switched jobs just recently, my job wasnt worth being restricted from HBT.

 

[brandonhagen1]

thats an invasion of privacy what if you were looking at porn lol but joking aside i think it is wrong to monitor what people do as long as your job gets done right what does it matter what else you do

 

[kappclark]

ask them to open port 22, then make a SSH tunnel to your home computer...launch HBT remotely (and any other website)...

or try a public proxy server (but they have probably blocked most sites like that as well)..

But, is it worth the grief ?

 

[Yooper]

It's blocked where I work too, as are all proxy sites- and other sites that mention "beer, wine, homebrew", etc.

Of course, I'm retired and only work as a "fill-in" so it's not all that often unless I do a few days at a stretch. I sure miss HBT then, though!

 

[dougdecinces]

It's not worth the grief. It's a long story, but the business I work at is relocating at the end of the year and laying everyone off. During the transition we have lots of downtime (which will happen when you're staffed at close to 200%), so I have lots of downtime, which is why I liked having HBT handy.

 

[alaskana]

Try using a proxy. Here's a good place to start: http://proxy.org/cgi_proxies.shtml. Simply go to one of the proxies listed on this site, type in this site's address and you should be taken here. Sure, your workplace may block proxies as well, but there are many to choose from. If one doesn't work, try another one. I bet you will find one that isn't blocked.

Also, if you sign up for www.logmein.com (free) and add your home computer, you can log into your home computer from work and access the site from there.

Just a few options for ya! (Oh and I'm an IT guy and I have a policy of not monitoring other employees web access. They are grown ups and are responsible for what they do).

 

[KayaBrew]

You are all clearly lowly employees and not owners/managers/foremen where you work. Bitching about no HBT at work. Sheesh. Haven't you ever seen Homer Simpson or George Costanza at work? Those guys can waste time!

 

[rossi46]

I'm a foreman and it's blocked for my boss and all employes. It sucks but what are you gonna do. I just use my phone.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I just tether my phone to my work computer and viola, full unmonitored access!

 

[jakecpunut]

also, if you sign up for www.logmein.com (free) and add your home computer, you can log into your home computer from work and access the site from there.

this!

 

[phoenixs4r]

I just tether my phone to my work computer and viola, full unmonitored access!

This.

 

[Homercidal]

Set up a proxy server on your home computer... That way it's not one of the listed proxies that can be blocked. And the logmein is great for what it's supposed to be for, but it would be hella frustrating compared to a proxy.

FYI - I am the IT manager at my shop and when the corporate offices decided to install a filtering system, my Shop manager MADE me bypass it. He and pretty much everyone here was of the mind that the supervisors should be able to police themselves.

Now that he owns this division, we only block facebook and twitter, and I haven't gotten any complaints about that! (He probably doesn't realize that the person who caused the facebook blocking is just going to do it on his smarphone anyway...)

 

[bferullo]

+1 to the proxy. I tend to remote access my home PC so that anything doen online isn't monitored by the corporate proxy server.

Don't think i could make it through the workday without HBT.

 

[timdsmith72]

ask them to open port 22, then make a SSH tunnel to your home computer...launch HBT remotely (and any other website)...

or try a public proxy server (but they have probably blocked most sites like that as well)..

But, is it worth the grief ?

Getting them to open port 22 probably isn't going to happen. However, you can set up your home SSH server to listen on port 443 or port 53. Those are ports they usually can't block. (unless they want to block you from logging in to your bank, among other things.) Then set up a tunnel as mentioned above.
But you didn't hear this from me.

 

[HopSong]

All creative.. but... is it worth possibly getting fired over? Sure, the employees are getting laid off.. but, having "Fired" on my record in one way or another may hamper future opportunities in your area. I'd forget about it.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Sounds like somebody's been monitoring your browsing activities. At least it won't be blocked on your phone (as long as you're not using the company's wifi).

Personally, though, if my employer didn't trust me to use their time in a responsible manner and monitored what I was doing on my lunch breaks, I'd look for alternative options.

That's not to say you should quit your job over HBT, but it may speak other issues at play.

thats an invasion of privacy what if you were looking at porn lol but joking aside i think it is wrong to monitor what people do as long as your job gets done right what does it matter what else you do

You have to realize, especially for a large corporation, it's an IT security issue. The more you block and restrict, the less problems you have from people visiting problematic sites.


It's blocked where I work as well. So I proxy thinks to a buddy's help. It didn't used to be, but they did an update on their server's and the new update happened to group HBT with the Alcohol sites finally.

 

[cokronk]

The government entity I work for has an intial that stands for Alcohol and they don't block there sites.

Sounds like some bad luck, OP.

 

[JustLooking]

Not an IT guy but over 10 years ago I was the most computer savvy guy, so they put me in charge of a small network of about six computers. Picked up a program called PC Anywhere that worked great for setting up software and troubleshooting problems remotely. It also gave me the ability to monitor what was on the screen of any computer in the network. No one knew I had this capability and I never spoke about what I saw, but I have to say, it was pretty entertaining at times.

Since then, I’ve always assumed that any business computer was monitored in a similar way.

They must be using better, even more stealth stuff today. Do you really think that logging into your home computer to use HBT will keep you out of trouble?

 

[ic3scrap3r]

In most corporations they have little interest in monitoring your browsing habits. They simply add new categories to block from time to time. Also, most vendors offering web filtering products have a subscription service and they maintain the categories. Sometimes items get shifted to a different category that is already blocked.

 

[Carter1932]

Sometime circumventing the corporate DNS can get you around a firewall. If you are setup as an administrator on your computer (PC or Mac), as it seems most people are, then you can just manually enter in a secondary DNS source not under your employer's control in your network settings.

My employer uses OpenDNS filters to block sites and I get around that by using google's DNS service which has an IP of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4 as my secondary DNS. Probably wouldn't recommend this if you aren't clear on how all this works as you could cut yourself off from your local network if you don't keep the primary DNS address in place.

 

[LarryC]

I work for a large company (over 25000 employees world wide) and internet sites with content about beer, drugs, sex, etc. are blocked by WebSense. I imagine you could creatively work around that with a proxy like was mentioned, but the results for getting caught would be termination - not really something I want with 20+ years of service.

I guess I see things a bit differently than some of you folks. The hardware/software and all the infrastructure that supports it belongs to my company. If they don't want me to go to HBT or other sites while I'm at work, that's their right. Just like I have the right to tell people who come into my house not to smoke(or drink Bud Light ) To me, it's just work - life begins when I get home...

 

[the_bird]

Yeah, using proxies is specifically banned in our IT policies, and I'm pretty sure they leave themselves the option of "termination" as a punishment. They leave HBT alone, but there are quite a few other sites that get blocked. My sister-in-law's blog is banned as "pornography." Facebook and Twitter are banned (Google+ is fine). Of course, they also have a completely unfiltered WiFi network, so I can just use that.

 

[kappclark]

Just like I have the right to tell people who come into my house not to smoke(or drink Bud Light ) To me, it's just work - life begins when I get home...

+1

I manage a k-12 campus network, and people ask me why facebook is blocked .. I tell them I don't sign the checks - they had better speak to them...

whoever pays the piper calls the tune..

 

[sudsmcgee]

Not an IT guy but over 10 years ago I was the most computer savvy guy, so they put me in charge of a small network of about six computers. Picked up a program called PC Anywhere that worked great for setting up software and troubleshooting problems remotely. It also gave me the ability to monitor what was on the screen of any computer in the network. No one knew I had this capability and I never spoke about what I saw, but I have to say, it was pretty entertaining at times.

Since then, I’ve always assumed that any business computer was monitored in a similar way.

They must be using better, even more stealth stuff today. Do you really think that logging into your home computer to use HBT will keep you out of trouble?

Which is one of the reasons why I use Easy Tether and my phone. In order for Easy Tether to work I have to disconnect from the network. Guess what, no one can see that I'm looking at.

 

[stevea1210]

Which is one of the reasons why I use Easy Tether and my phone. In order for Easy Tether to work I have to disconnect from the network. Guess what, no one can see that I'm looking at.

Not necessarily. We have security software at work that logs items while disconnected from the network and then uploads them when connectivity is restored. Prevents things like you describe from being effective.

While I don't think alcohol related sites should be blocked, I feel it is important for an IT department to have some filtering enabled. Between restricting certain sites and not allowing users to be admins, most users pc problems are eliminated.

<coming from an IT guy working at a 3500+ user workplace>

 

[sudsmcgee]

Not necessarily. We have security software at work that logs items while disconnected from the network and then uploads them when connectivity is restored. Prevents things like you describe from being effective.

While I don't think alcohol related sites should be blocked, I feel it is important for an IT department to have some filtering enabled. Between restricting certain sites and not allowing users to be admins, most users pc problems are eliminated.

<coming from an IT guy working at a 3500+ user workplace>

Good to know, thanks! Actually my work doesn't even care. I brew with the owner.

 

[kappclark]

While I don't think alcohol related sites should be blocked, I feel it is important for an IT department to have some filtering enabled. Between restricting certain sites and not allowing users to be admins, most users pc problems are eliminated.

<coming from an IT guy working at a 3500+ user workplace>

Yes - whether you do it with a phone, your own laptop, ipad etc, you are doing it on company time, which is unethical, isunless the employer has a set policy allowing this..

 

[jonmohno]

I usually go to work to work.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Does your work allow breaks or lunches? Mine does, and sometimes I use the internet during said times. Crazy concept, huh?

 

[sudsmcgee]

Yes - whether you do it with a phone, your own laptop, ipad etc, you are doing it on company time, which is unethical, isunless the employer has a set policy allowing this..

Eh, or not. I browse on break or lunch.

 

[kappclark]

Eh, or not. I browse on break or lunch.

Like I said - unless your company has a policy on this