Decrease my productivity
August 16, 2007 7:44 AM   Subscribe

I would like to play games, download stuff, play poker, check fantasy football, etc. from work. But there is some sort of filter/blocking thing. Can you give me easy ways to beat the system and not get in trouble?

I have a PC. Thanks in advance.
posted by Wayman Tisdale to Computers & Internet (11 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'd say use a proxy, but most companies block the proxy sites too. I'd go home, go to proxy.org and look at a few of the sites listed and see if you can to them from work. From there, surf.
posted by sephira at 7:46 AM on August 16, 2007


If you can install stuff, maybe Tor would work? If the filter is just blocking specific webpages it ought to.

You're not going to pull too much bandwidth or have good latency though - it's slowing (though not crippling) to connections made through it. So if play games means Flash sites, maybe, but not Counterstrike. When I installed it it came with a button that turns it on and off in Firefox.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:01 AM on August 16, 2007


The answer to this oft-asked question is always the same - there's no safe way to circumvent corporate network restrictions, so don't try it if you want to keep your job.

If you don't want to keep your job, quit now and you can then play games and download stuff as much as you want.
posted by malevolent at 8:27 AM on August 16, 2007 [5 favorites]


If the proxy sites are blocked, you can set your home computer up as a proxy server and then run all of your surfing through there.
posted by caddis at 8:28 AM on August 16, 2007


There have been a number of questions along these lines asked before. Search the AskMeFi archives for proxy and filter.
PS. I would stay away from downloads. They can hog bandwidth and are obvious.
posted by jmd82 at 8:33 AM on August 16, 2007


Set up a Linux box at home.
posted by flabdablet at 8:53 AM on August 16, 2007


Please don't use Tor for this.

But, do what caddis, jmd82 and flabdablet suggest, bearing in mind what malevolent says.
posted by philomathoholic at 9:18 AM on August 16, 2007


Can you give me easy ways to beat the system and not get in trouble?

I could probably beat the system if I knew a whole heck of a lot more about your IT setup, but there's no way I can help you not get into trouble. Just because you are able to install something doesnt mean it can't be detected afterwards.

Also be warned that if you do get caught and you've got all these tools on your machine ( tor, tunnels, cracker tools, etc ) setup for the express purporse of violating policy and compromising security, youre probably in a lot more trouble than the guy who managed to get bedazzled to install.

If you go this route Id be VERY careful with poker. These poker clients usually come bundled with some nasty things (virus, porn) and gambling at work is a quick way to get fired.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:20 AM on August 16, 2007


You don't actually need any tools installed on your machine, by the way. PortaPUTTY and Portable Firefox on a USB stick will work nicely.

Do be discreet.

If you annoy your IT people enough, they will (a) cause you to be sacked (b) switch to a port whitelist and an IP address blacklist to make it that much harder to set up tunnels. So don't spoil everybody else's fun.
posted by flabdablet at 9:26 AM on August 16, 2007


If you do not know enough to tell us what sort of filter/blocking thing your workplace is using, then there is little to no possibility that we can help you not get in trouble.
posted by splice at 2:15 PM on August 16, 2007


If they have a filter set up, they're almost certainly monitoring everything, too, and will notice if you start using a lot more bandwidth than usual or running programs that shouldn't be on your pc (also, what damn dirty ape said). So maybe it'd be better to find some non-computer-based stuff to goof off with.
posted by Many bubbles at 3:53 PM on August 16, 2007


« Older INLAND EMPIRE Soundtrack?   |   Fulfillment Companies in L.A.? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.