This website is banned,

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so pretty much its looks like they want to take the first and second amendment with one shot!
pure genius!
After they read this post we'll probably lose all the rest of them too!
 
It should be up to the business whether to block it or not. I would disagree with going to THR while at work. If your boss doesnt want you here while on the clock then you should not be here. The same for students, if your at school then the school has the right to block content.

Redlion who is this "they" you are referring to?
 
You are reminding me of when I did some of that programming at an apartment setup - had a lot of tenants doing lot's of different stuff. I never really was into blocking particular content - didn't bother me they can view what they want to view. I blocked services and various program functionalities mostly. And most of the reasoning behind it was to more evenly distribute the bandwidth. I did block some sites though - advertising ones. That was before firefox and the adblock plugins. It was done just with BIND and worked great. Oh, and of course the blocking was optional. Didn't really have anyone who wanted to look at the ads except for a few girls - fashion shopper kind that actually liked them!:rolleyes:

I ran my own linux routers - Linux lets you have pretty much control on what goes on with the IP stack and has decent connection tracking. I never bothered blocking open proxies and I browse the net on many poorly setup networks or "child protection software" computers that either don't have a clue about how to block open proxies or just are not that good at it.

Need a several grand pix firewall or a thrown out 200mhz pentium running Linux. Oh, and an admin that knows what they are doing, too.
 
Torpark

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For those of you running Firefox, the Torpark browser (up to version 2.0.0.3) is free. It's a proxied Firefox, and I've been able to run it on pretty much any network. Past v2.0.0.3 I believe it's been rebranded to XeroBank XB Browser, though I've not played with that.

When my previous employer's IT dept decided to start blocking politically conservative blogs (while claiming they weren't), I found that Torpark allowed me access to pretty much whatever.

Yes, you give up some performance, but you don't leave breadcrumbs everywhere, and you can get to wherever you need to go.

Like here.

(Oh, and for those of you NOT running Firefox -- specifically those of you still running IE -- why would you do that to yourself? I run Opera as a rule, Firefox for stuff that Opera doesn't handle right, and IE only when I must.

I lock my car when it's parked, I don't leave it idling when I shop, I lock my (home) doors at night, I don't leave guns on my coffee table with the blinds open, and I don't run IE without a really good reason.)
A BIG +1 to Torpark.

My HS I went to (and graduated from last year) blocked Facebook, and a few other sites. So a friend told me about torpark, and on the one computer in a lab I always used during my CAD drawing class, I put Torpark on while I noticed the computer "unlocked" (program they used called "deep freeze" which undos everything you did on the computer after you log off) so it was on there for the rest of the year.

Now, when I'm not at home on weekends from college, at my school I've never come across a site that was blocked, so I don't think they block any. Not even while using their WiFi in the academic buildings.
 
I like to keep my browsing habits and info private while using public wifi connections, and the way I do it also happens to get around blocks :). I don't condone using it as such, but I use this setup to keep my data secure while it's traveling over unsecured networks:

1.) Install Hamachi on both your home PC and your laptop.
2.) Create a passworded network in Hamachi and connect both of your computers to it. The icon next to the name of your computers should both be solid green.
3.) Double click on your home PC in Hamachi from your laptop and see if you can get a ping. If you can't your firewall may need to be configured to put the Hamachi IP of your laptop in your "trusted" zone.
4.) Install a basic proxy server(there are many others out there, but this one is simple and works) on your home PC. Turn on the SOCKS and HTTP proxies, leave the others off, and bind the proxy to the Hamachi IP of your home PC.
5.) Now you need to configure your programs to connect through the proxy, for browsers and IM clients, this is fairly straight forward. For other programs I suggest FreeCap to "socksify" the program to work with a SOCKS proxy.

Note: The security of this setup also relies on you having a NAT enabled router(if you have broadband, and you have a router between the modem and you(or the modem may be a router itself), you're probably good to go). I wouldn't suggest trying this if all you have at home is dial up.

Now if everything works like it should you ought to have a secure connection to your home PC from your laptop that you can use for almost anything.

Google is your friend for troubleshooting.
 
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Its not banned at my office, but a lot of gun sites are. I've noticed that "firearms" "explosives" "local host" and "specialty shopping" get banned, while I guess "weapons" is allowed through.

If I didnt have THR at work I dont know what I'd do. Well actually I'd probably just be on YouTube and read wikipedia all day.
 
Say what you will about California, but even the most staunch advocate of gun control would have a problem with content being censored. I believe in San Francisco the airport put in some sort of software that blocks bad sites to keep people from getting viruses and such, but because it blocked sites they ended up taking it out.

Just like a public library it's goes against the amendments for them to censor or block you from looking at porn or whatever you want.

With all the internet companies in silicon valley, i've never worked for one that censors anything. If you did that here you would have zero employees. Besides everyone knows how to get around them.

In the midwest I couldn't believe how many companies I visited that BLOCKED employees from visiting websites. I remember working on server equipment and trying to fix services for this midwest company and my personal webmail server was blocked. I demanded the sysadmin there give me full access. He continued to be a jerk, so I went to the CEO and told him I needed full access. They all asked if I was trying to access porn or why I would need to see bad sites. I then explained that I could decide for myself what to view, and if they didn't like it to get rid of me.. After they figured out I was serious that and went to walk out of the building, they called me up offering full access. Needless to say my reply came by way of a company wide email, with a picture of a nude painting.. ;-)


Sorry I get so worked up by censored anything. You can't stop people, take China, everybody knows how to get around the firewalls.
 
They had been blocking weapons, political, opinion, and pornography at my workplace. Now they block all news sites as well. Some stuff still flies "under the radar". Before, most would browse in between tasks waiting for their next job. Now they all wander around and IMO are less productive. Some are just protesting by spending none of their free time at their workstations. Some used to skip lunch and stay on station to do work if it was available. Now they don't. Just to give you an idea of the workplace, it's a boiler room type environment, answering phones all day, staring at a wall.
In addition, it seems all the proxies are blocked as well.
 
The most bizarre thing I ever saw was a public library computer in Clewiston, Florida in 2001 that wouldn't let me send the word "hate" in an e-mail.
As I recall, some of us on the Florida Sportsman fishing forum were arguing about something, and I wrote "I hate to break it to you guys, but..."
When I clicked "Submit", it appeared on the site as "I to break it to you guys, but..."
At first I thought it was a typo on my part, but after looking into it, I found it to be some sort of blocking program. Weird! :eek:
 
You guys keep quoting the First Amendment.

This is not a First Amendment issue. Private companies can block whatever speech they want, that is not protected under the First Amendment.
 
I'm in outside sales and on the road quite a bit. Different Panera Breads locked and some didn't lockout this site and AR15.com, Gunbroker etc... I've since gone to a Verizon Wireless Broadband card and I can get anything I want anytime.
 
Yeah I guess you guys are right about it not being illegal, but I will probably hate censorship stuff like that for the rest of my life because of a project I had to do in high school about Malcolm X. I had to go through a proxy server to research him because many websites were banned because of racism. A lot of WWII and cold war info was banned too because of violence.
 
Man, they ban CABELAS as my old job. THR might as well be militant terrorists in their eyes.

now I am curisous to see if some networks I am on ban cabelas. I bet they would.

What is fun to do, is the location many filters use is at their website. The website also has a "submit new site" function, and you can list the catagory. When I get those, I type in their website, and list it as "discriminatory" and send it off.

I can see doing stuff for security and all, but most of the time, these things are worthless. You have to change the heart. "outlawing sin" in other words, does not make a sin free society. Making it "not allowed" to view so-called objectionable material is not the way to do it if the objective is to make people not view said content. I do not know why so many people have a hard time with that aspect of this stuff. It is like telling the what but with out the why. Only with God do I have that much trust as to not even care about the why and no that it is right. With man, sorry, "blocking" does not stop. Infact, it, via human nature, encourages.
 
My employer requires me to check THR every day or so.

Then again, I am self employed.
 
Anecdotal but: I travel a lot, in fact I'm in Anaheim at the Hilton right now on business. I've never had THR blocked anywhere in the world; airport, hotel, motel, venue, whatever.
 
You guys keep quoting the First Amendment.

This is not a First Amendment issue. Private companies can block whatever speech they want, that is not protected under the First Amendment.
Whats your opinion on net neutrality?
 
Whats your opinion on net neutrality?

Well since the Department of Defense paid for the buildout of DARPA and then the Internet, to the tune of BILLIONS to the phone companies, I think it should be covered by the First Amendment.

If the phone companies want to pay that money back to the Feds then they can do whatever they want.

My opinion anyway.

But, a private business providing free Internet access for some customer service reason can block whatever they want, and I am free to go get my cheeseburger somewhere else :)

Just put me in charge for a while, everything will be fixed. I only need a couple of weeks, a case of beer to confuse Ted Kennedy, and a couple of cases of duct tape.
 
My employer bans just about everything. They block the sports section of TV channel websights. They just want people working not BSing.

I don't travel so I just wait to get home.
 
My wife was recently in and out of a couple of hospitals and I found that I coudn't get on any "gun" sites using the hospital computers. I wasn't surprised really. You never know when someone is going to pull a gun out of a computer and go on a rampage. :rolleyes:
 
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