Websense

[Walterk01]

Alas our company just installed Websense which I figured out by being blocked from reading and participating in posts such as this. I imagine it cannot be circumvented.
I like to surf the news and comments and I surley don't want some Human resourses brute to come down on me.
Anybody have any experiences with this web reporting site?

Thanks
WalterK01

 

[jrbarnett]

Hi,

If you are surfing the net on company time using company computers, it should be fine provided that the sole use is company related (ie you aren't checking your personal email or the cinema times for going out tomorrow evening etc).

Depending on IT acceptable use policies in place within your organisation, this may be allowed - I would check and see if monitoring/logging is permitted.

John

 

[pmonett]

Blocked by company resources = you're screwed.
Unless you have a viable reason to access this site and its forums. If IT does not know about it, make your case to your superior and hope for the best.
If it does not work by respecting the hierarchical procedure, it will certainly not get better if you get caught trying to cheat the system (grounds for dismissal, if I'm not mistaken).
Besides, you can circumvent Websense at the sole condition that it has been poorly configured or incorrectly installed.
If it is properly installed and configured, all attempts to cheat will simply appear in the log and you will end up nailed to the wall.
Do not forget one thing : if your company has decided to purchase and use such a product, that means that there is a witch-hunter somewhere who is on the warpath and wants blood. If you stick your neck up gratuitiously, he will be only too happy to lop it off.

In the company I work at at the moment, there is a firewall and there are logging tools, but nothing is blocked and the surveillance is quite lax. The principle being that management trusts the employees to get the work done on time and correctly. Outside of that, nobody considers that surfing the web is a problem, as long as the work is done.
Which is nice.

 

[cdogg]

Our company uses websense as well, and I have no problem accessing this site along with many other news sites and multimedia content.

Your company may have gone with more restrictive settings in websense, not wanting you to access anything non-business related. However, it wouldn't hurt to ask your IT dept to lift the restriction for this site and others that are harmless and informative. The worst that could happen is for them to say 'No'.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[Walterk01]

Thank you all for the advice. Even though we all search the WEB for info or just notice an interesting article, I am now aware of someone looking over my shoulder and a lot more careful of what the company would think is appropriate.