websense and 2+2 at work

[stoxtrader]

My firm recently sent out a firmwide memo stating that our internet usage was being monitored and anything relating to internet gambling or pornography was off limits.

they are using a software program called websense to track it, and I feel so lost without being able to browse 2+2 during downtime at work. It's certainly not a productivity issue for them, it's just a liability issue - i think someone in the firm got in trouble for doing something illegal, but not positive.

in any event, I haven't been able to hang around here for almost a month and wanted to see if I am completely out of luck. anyone familiar with websense? will 2+2 be classified as a gambling site and flagged? My job is certainly more important than being able to browse here, but I would love to do both.

I think I am probably just totally out of luck, but wanted to ask the great brain trust here to make sure.

thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

[lorinda]

Websense website

Seriously, why not email websense and ask?

There's very little chance that it would suddenly alert them to 2+2's existence,(2+2 is big) so you could ask what classification (or whatever word they use) 2+2 has.

Lori

[mdeck]

If you're that determined to get around it, you could probably run your browser through a proxy, though I don't know if websense can work around that route or not. You could try something like www.anonymizer.com

Another route you could probably take is just to browse 2+2 on your home pc, using Remote Desktop.

I'd advise you just sucked it up though, reading 2+2 during the day isn't worth getting fired over.

[mattw]

tell the boss 2+2 is a publishing site. poker is a game of skill. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[RPMick]

Websense will block 2+2 for either gambling or for chat.


You need something like this (zero endorsement here) to get around it.

-Ryan

[smb394]

The company I work for uses Websense. www.twoplustwo.com is blocked, however forumserver.twoplustwo.com is not.

[TheIrishThug]

[ QUOTE ]
The company I work for uses Websense. www.twoplustwo.com is blocked, however forumserver.twoplustwo.com is not.

[/ QUOTE ]

idk if they use websense, but the same is true for me. i say try going once. if it's blocked then o well, u will have to deal with doing it from home. i'd think if u get caught trying to get around the block, it would be a bigger deal then just getting blocked once or twice.

[/ QUOTE ]

i say try going once. if it's blocked then o well, u will have to deal with doing it from home. i'd think if u get caught trying to get around the block, it would be a bigger deal then just getting blocked once or twice.

[/ QUOTE ]

I fully agree

[Aceshigh7]

I think it depends on how your company chooses to configure Websense. For example, my company uses it and I have no problems accessing any 2+2 pages.

[kem]

[ QUOTE ]
anyone familiar with websense? will 2+2 be classified as a gambling site and flagged? My job is certainly more important than being able to browse here, but I would love to do both.

I think I am probably just totally out of luck, but wanted to ask the great brain trust here to make sure.

[/ QUOTE ]

We have WebSense here. forumserver.twoplustwo.com is categorized as "Games" for me, and www.twoplustwo.com is categorized as "Gambling". Both are filtered. To the people who suggested proxies: WebSense certainly categorizes, and blocks, these as well.

There are a few ways around it, depending on how tech savvy you are, and how your work's network is configured. At my last job (same WebSense situation), I actually configured a home Linux machine to connect/disconnect to my company's VPN on command (I controlled it from a web page). Once connected, I could SSH into my home machine, forwarding a local port (on my work machine) through the SSH tunnel to the Linux machine's Squid server. I left my IE alone, but installed FireFox to use the local forwarded port as its proxy. End result: I could browse using IE and everything looked kosher to the company, or I could fire up FireFox and have everything encrypted and go wherever I wanted, 100% WebSense free.

A simpler solution at my new job is to actually use Bloomberg to browse 2+2. I believe companies can restrict where the BB web browser can go, but my company doesn't. So I'm able to navigate my way to 2+2 through BB.. pretty cool.