School Blocks

[Digital Spit]

Lets talk about school blocks...

I HATE THEM SO MUCH.
But on a sidenote, this is one of the only sites that isn't blocked so I spend alot of time here

[MrPresident]

I know your pain.. the DoD blocks most sites for me too... to include this one.

[JamminR]

Digital spit, be careful, most block software reports to an admin any site not blocked but containing a keyword.
"Forum" is one of those keywords, and don't think your admins won't know.
If they look.
Not all really look, and try to rely on the software.
Just warning.
(I know because of my career..part of a small focus team of a larger team of IT geeks supporting hundreds of other IT geeks who think they get away with much that they really don't but sometimes is used to build up 'cases' of lots of little things that is often used during performance reviews)
(It's scary what I've learned as I've climbed the ladder, and think back "I got away with that?! Wow!")

[Digital Spit]

I mean I know that we have key loggers, what I don't understand is my website is blocked however this one isn't...just watch tomorrow this site will be blocked! I use it for educational purposes I swear tech department!

[krooks]

Sort of random that they would block all forums, I mean, some could be useful for study!
Might as well just set up a closed network with access to only the school's pages if they are going to block by keyword geez

[Megiddo]

I find it insulting that my school blocks these forums but not facepunch forums...

[krooks]

I find it insulting that my school blocks these forums but not facepunch forums...

@.@ whaaa?? That makes no sense.

[MrPresident]

God bless Proxy Servers... We were provided with a proxy server out here with the intention of using it to cache common site files to make our internet faster and it in turn allows us to circumvent the firewall blocks!

[krooks]

I've never fully understood proxy servers. I mean, I somewhat understand how they work, and why you might want to use one, but are they all incredibly slow?

Like all those people who use them to do questionable internet things, do they seriously sit there for that long waiting on their proxy, or chain of proxies for that matter? Or maybe its just the times I've explored the idea, I did it wrong.  haha

[JamminR]

those people who use them

That's key phrase right there.
You're probably using 'public' proxies that every person who wants to surf anonymously (which, are MANY) want to use.
A good corporate setup proxy won't have the delays you've probably seen.
Open proxies are usually extremely overloaded.

[krooks]

aaah ok haha

[MrPresident]

Also the way our proxy works is that it resides on a server here in country. The main purpose of it is to cache static content on popular websites and then to pull from the proxy before reaching back to the US for the originals. If anything it actually increases the load time for us not decrease it. The only thing that I see an impact on is file downloads. Since the file has to be downloaded to the proxy and then from the proxy to me I take some cut in speed, but if it's too bad I just disable the proxy (assuming the file/site im on isn't blocked by our firewall) long enough to download the file and then throw the proxy back on.

We don't use the proxy for anonimity. We use it for more legit purposes.

[Megiddo]

Almost any place you work at is guaranteed to have a proxy running, though it might be a "transparent" proxy.