# Work Internet use policies/blocked sites: your experiences? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 18, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413 "2003-09-18T17:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Honeydew\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e19b73/32.png) [@Honeydew\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honeydew_1)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/21 "2003-09-19T19:18:18Z")
Duhhhhhh … I meant my company use Websense too… _goes to the back of the class_ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/22 "2003-09-19T21:19:19Z")
Today’s lesson is _Using Collective Nouns_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/23 "2003-09-20T02:12:37Z")
The Internet use policy where I work: No personal Internet usage. Period. Not even on breaks or lunches or anything. There’s _another_ reason to be job-searching… ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/24 "2003-09-20T18:12:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*I’ve never worked for a company that intruded on how I use my computer. \*\* But you’ve worked for a company that let you bring your own personal computer to work? ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/25 "2003-09-20T18:29:31Z")
I blocked out web-based email for one good reason. Viruses. We go through the time and expense to put in an email anti-virus gateway, only to have some idiot go into hotmail and click on every attachment in their inbox. Yes, we have AV on the desktop but they are not always up to date. Our email gateway also filters out all .VBS, .EXE, etc, which also protects against all the new viruses out there that our AV won’t pick up. I wasn’t draconian by any means, but tough love is sometimes needed and this was one case. I didn’t care about the people who found the workarounds either, as I knew they should be smart enough to not screw up. You would be suprised though at how many people look at porn at work. One guy got flagged with a ton of blocked pages, and when I looked at his total log it was clear that he looked up a generic sex term on google and was hitting the results one by one in hopes of finding a page that Websense did not block. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/26 "2003-09-20T19:01:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheFunkySpaceCowboy \* > \*\* My boss originally wanted me to use Websense but I refused … > > …but I’ve refused to implement such a draconian policy right away. \*\* I don’t block any sites at work - I set a policy as to what is reasonable Internet usage at work. On the other hand, I have a much more draconian policy about people who supposedly work for me but “refuse” to do what I ask. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/27 "2003-09-20T19:18:57Z")
**Severian** : > [@](#): > > Originally posted by **AHunter3** > > > [@](#): > > > > I’ve never worked for a company that intruded on how I use my computer. > > But you’ve worked for a company that let you bring your own personal computer to work? Absolutely, always. I’ve supplied my own computer the last 4 jobs (including current) and before that computers were not ubiquitous and were not a factor in any of my jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/28 "2003-09-20T20:35:02Z")
My school used to be the most liberal one around. For some reason, this has changed over the last couple of months. Strange things are blocked - for example, hotmail used to be blocked but Yahoo was accessible, and now it’s the other way around. One girl I know is able to get onto hotmail’s sign-in page, but it’s her inbox that is always blocked, no matter what emails she has in it. Everyone else doesn’t seem to have this problem! Thus far, the SDMB is not blocked - I have a different problem. My free periods invariably fall during the board’s downtime! And my other website of choice is [livejournal.com](http://livejournal.com), but that’s blocked. What isn’t blocked is my personal journal, as I have a paid account and can use the shorter version of the URL ([loneraven.livejournal.com](http://loneraven.livejournal.com)) instead of using the version that has “www” in it. I’ve tried complaning many, many times about this, to no avail. Seems they really don’t care, so what can you do. ---
**Author:** ![Delly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Delly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delly)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/29 "2003-09-20T21:30:40Z")
The college I go too has Hotmail blocked because apparently it was using up to much bandwidth. Its kind of understandable really, what with the amount of people who were using it. Its not blocked fully though, you can get in via [msn.com](http://msn.com). Yahoo has never been blocked though, thats strange. All chat rooms, game rooms, porn sites etc are banned, and the people in the IT department who monitor the net access will personally come down to the IT labs and tell you to get out. ---
**Author:** ![dead0man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@dead0man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dead0man)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/30 "2003-09-20T22:31:16Z")
I have 2 connections at work. 1 regular dial up and 1 Air Force ran WAN. The dial up I can get anywhere, but it’s slow and its on a VERY unstable computer. The WAN is super fast (usually) and the PC is solid as a rock (win 2k). But alas, I cant get here as its “Humor” you see. BUT, I can get to FARK, [freecell.com](http://freecell.com), dozens of gameing sites and gaming forums. I can’t check my hotmail or go to Yahoo Fantasy sports page, but I can play poker with Big Pussy at [HBO.com](http://HBO.com). Strange. ---
**Author:** ![ladydisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@ladydisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladydisco)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/31 "2003-09-20T22:56:22Z")
This is a minor hijack, but… I was working in-house tech support and the network guys were installing a new firewall without telling us. The message everyoe got on their homepages was something to the effect of telling them that they should surf wisely and that our system was secure. We got ALL KINDS of calls, or shoud I say ‘confessions’ from employees. “Uh, I just got an email from my brother-in-law last week. I didn’t open it because I thought it was offensive.” (?) “I haven’t been surfing inappropriate websites!” etc. It was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/32 "2003-09-21T04:27:33Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > > \*\ ***Severian** : > > But you’ve worked for a company that let you bring your own personal computer to work? > > Absolutely, always. I’ve supplied my own computer the last 4 jobs (including current) and before that computers were not ubiquitous and were not a factor in any of my jobs. \*\* Well then you’re kind of a special case, aren’t you? I’d bet the majority of posters here are using employer-provided hardware and therefore have no legitimate expectation of privacy. May I ask, were you also providing your own Internet connection? As to the original post, your employer should have a written policy regarding usage of computer and Internet resources. I’d refer to it before making any decisions. For example, knowingly circumventing site restrictions is grounds for termination where I work. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/33 "2003-09-21T04:33:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Noelq \* > \*\* > > What I have found is that if you can install America Online on your computer, you can use their web-browser, and no sites get blocked. (I’m not purely accurate on the methods why, but I think AOL just uses the company internet portal to get out, but uses a different portal to get websites that isn’t filtered by the software) I don’t know if this is true on all systems, but you may want to check that if your favorite sites get blocked. \*\* My co-worker found this AOL trick too and it works even where I’m at (the Federal Government). I haven’t tried it myself however, since very little I want to go to is blocked. The waybackmachine ([archive.org](http://archive.org)) is blocked however…if it isn’t on your system, it is a good way of accessing otherwise blocked sites, albeit not always with all the pictures. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/34 "2003-09-21T14:55:28Z")
My school (high school) has the most rediculous policies in the library (where the only decent computers in the school are). I don’t know the name of the software right off - I think it’s something like ‘Safe Surf’, but I’m not sure. The school policy is that we’re not supposed to use the computers for non-school things (emails, bbs, music, games, etc). [Yahoo.com](http://Yahoo.com) is blocked; [mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com) is not (nor are any other Yahoo sites, such as [dir.yahoo.com](http://dir.yahoo.com).) For a bit last year, [news.google.com](http://news.google.com) was very inexplicably blocked. All sites that supposedly contain explicit, pornographic, drug-oriented, or otherwise controversial content are blocked. This includes (and I complained about most of these) the Green party website, Amnesty International (I think because it references torture), the Straight Dope, and parts of [beliefnet.com](http://beliefnet.com). Oddly, you could access everything but information on various sects of christianity on that last one. Of course, if you happen to know the admin logon and password for the computers in the library, you can basically do whatever you want on the computers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/35 "2003-09-21T15:24:41Z")
I’m the IT person at a public library and we will be implementing some sort of filter before July 2004 as per order of the feds. I am very unhappy about this because I’ve yet to find a filter that actually works. We have an acceptible use policy in place for patrons–basically we don’t allow chat, and anything that’s illegal or obscene (as defined by local standards.) Unfortunately the government says this is not enough and we’ll be forced to do something else (the FCC’s guidelines are pretty vague, though.) My son and I went to another library just yesterday and he went online to some game site that gives tips and cheats to different games. The site was blocked by their filters so he asked if the filter could be shut off so he could view the site (according to the FCC ruling, if a patron asks for access to a blocked site the library is supposed to provide it.) They refused because it was a game site and they don’t allow anyone to play games at the library. When we explained that the site isn’t to play games but to get information about games, the librarian sniffed and said, “well, he only wants to learn how to cheat at the games,” and denied us access to unfiltered Internet, even though I’d said my son had permission. I didn’t make an issue of it because I just didn’t have the time, but I was really shocked at this attitude by a librarian! [Sorry for the slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/36 "2003-09-22T07:57:21Z")
**lauramarlane** , please tell us that when you have the opportunity, you’ll be going back to roast that librarian over an open pit. What an idiot. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/37 "2003-09-22T07:58:41Z")
To be clear, the “idiot” remark and the rolleyes were for the librarian, not lauramarlane! ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/38 "2003-09-22T10:06:11Z")
Actually, **TeaElle** , I’m going to talk with some of my co-workers about this because I think it may sway them in their opinion on filtering. Some of us (me included) were looking at it as an opportunity to stop being the porn police around here–which, trust me, does get a bit tedious after a while. But now that I’ve seen it from a patron point of view, I’m not so sure we should just accept this ruling without putting a lot more thought into how we decide to filter. [sorry again for the hijack, everyone] ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/39 "2003-09-22T13:38:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Honeydew \* > \*\*My computer use Websense too… which is a total pain as I don’t have access to either the Dope or any of my Yahoo groups. Any hints on getting around it? Obviously I can’t phone the IT manager and say oh I can’t get on the Dope anymore… it’s hardly a research tool now is it??? > > Hints? \*\* Try what I mentioned in my post. Instead of going to [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com), go straight to the boards at [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/).This works for me. Of course, if you’re at work, you can’t get here to click on my link that will get you here ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413/40 "2003-09-22T18:01:20Z")
It sounds like many of you are circumventing address filters to get where you want to go, not too difficult to do and something for me to consider. We’re getting ready to install filtering/firewall here at work and these are some of the issues I am wrestling with. My whole goal with the filter is to prevent things from becoming a problem. If they can’t visit the porn site then his/her manager can’t ask me to conspire to have them fired by providing access to logs. I’d rather be able to say to so-and-so “Hey, I noticed our logs picking up attempts to access [xxxsluts.com](http://xxxsluts.com), um, please don’t try that again,” rather than having to sit in the same room with someone about to lose their job because another co-worker saw the images on his screen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-internet-use-policies-blocked-sites-your-experiences/202413.md?page=3)