My Website is blocked
Today a co-worker was complaining about MySpace being blocked, and that he kept
getting a website blocked screen on his web browser. What do you mean website blocked he
kept saying. I then realized how many people don't know about the firewalls that
block unauthorized web content, let alone proxies to unblock sites a firewall has
blocked.
So I explained to him why MySpace might be blocked today and wasn't blocked yesterday, and
the website doesn't have to contain porn for the firewall to block the website. The firewall
sits between your computer and the Internet. Every time you access a web page on the Internet,
the data goes through the firewall. The firewall checks the website you requestes against
a list of sites that have been blacklisted by your company or the the firewall list they
subscribe to. When you go to myspace.com, the firewall looks in the blacklist to see if myspace.com
is blocked, if not it lets you go to the website. If the site you are trying to visit is on the
blacklist, you will be returned a warning screen telling you the content is unauthorized, and
the firewall will not allow your request to go through. The firewall will also most likely log
the request, noting the computer and website that was denied access. Don't worry, your
probably not going to get fired over trying to get to a site, and having the request blocked by
the firewall. Although if you repeatedly try to access the blocked site, you might raise concern
with your IT or security department. So why could I get to myspace yesterday, and I cannot
get to it today? There are many reasons, the first being the website was just found to be
showing content against company rules. New sites are added quite often to the firewall blacklist.
And if your company subscribes to a firewall list, you will have many sites added everyday.
Even though you weren't trying to look at anything controversial, something on the site may
be against company policy, and has therefore put the whole site on the blacklist.
But I was just wanting to view a myspace video, is there a
way I can get around the internet filter? Yes there is, a proxy site will allow you to sneak around
the firewall to look at the blocked site. A proxy allows you to beat the school firewall.
You simply surf to the proxy site, and then enter in the website you would like to visit.
So now the corporate filter thinks your just looking at www.notyourip.com, and since it
isn't on the firewall blacklist, it lets you surf to it. When you enter the website you
want to visit in the proxy, it acts like a messenger. You tell it what to get (your blocked
website), and it returns the website to you through the proxy, appearing to the firewall that
you are only surfing www.notyourip.com.
Explaining this to my coworker made him very happy, and is now using a proxy for everything.
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