Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with websense

How can I get websense to undo a nonsensical "sex" block on my boring blog?

cortex — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:37:18 -0800

Websense has apparently blacklisted my personal blog (my whole domain, in fact) for adult/sex content, which is pretty strange. What can I do about this? My blog is geeky and banal. The only thing I can think of that'd even be in the neighborhood of "adult" content is a short chapter of a several-years-old NaNoWriMo novel I was posting in real-time, which featured among other things some not-very-sexy sex between two characters.

But that has been on the site since 2005, and I only started getting anecdotal reports of websense trouble in maybe the last year or so. Which has me all the more boggled.

Is there any way to find out what triggered the listing, when, why, or by what mechanism? Any channel for appealing this with the company? Anybody know a guy who knows a guy?

Streaming MP3s from home PC to work PC (which has WebSense filter)

Alabaster — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:26:58 -0800

How can I stream MP3s from my home computer to my work computer THROUGH an evil Websense filter? I have read about Orb, Hamachi, Slingbox, etc. and they all sound very exciting. But my workplace (a school system) has a Websense filter that would inspire George Orwell.

I imagine that any of these services will be blocked as "Streaming Media" "Proxy Avoidance" or "Music Download Service."

Is there a way to stream my music collection directly from my home computer without going through a third-party website like Orb?

Any other choices for streaming through Websense?

Websense filtering out WLUW internet radio...

TiggleTaggleTiger — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:26:07 -0800

Skirting the mean cop that is Websense filtering! I just want to listen to WLUW in my office! Is there an easy way? We've got Websense at our office (a big hospital in Chicago) and I tend to see the blockpage a lot... you know, lunchtime porn surfing and whatnot... normally I don't mind but I really want to listen to some WLUW. KEXP is alright but has been a bit hit-or-miss recently. Trouble is, for some reason WLUW is being blocked by Websense! WTF?
I tried pinging the site and then hitting it by IP - no dice, Websense still catches it.
So, I figure I've got three options - can someone suggest more? Perhaps easier ones?
- Go home at lunch, turn on Shoutcast, tune in to WLUW, then just hit my broadcast from work.
- Talk to the IS people and ask them to remove WLUW from the Websense props file
- Buy a small radio and tune in the old-fashioned way (oh wait, that won't work as WLUW doesn't come in well anywhere south of Belmont...)

*sigh