5 March 2009

The net widens

They block all gaming sites and forums, they block every blog with its own domain, they block proxy servers, they have now even started blocking Google's cached content (my previous 'back door' to wowwiki and the like). It's like they own me. How am I supposed to keep a blog at work now?

Just about the only thing I have left is Google itself — my email, reader, and (inexplicably) Blogger. So I can keep writing about... nothing in particular. God even knows when that axe will fall. It will be a sad day for slackers independent journalists when they start blocking email :(

Clearly I'm not going to start blogging at home. That's playing time, that is.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm considering a netbook so I can blog on my (considerable) commute, I'm just not sure whether:

a) netbooks are a con and I should spend the very reasonable extra it would take to get a full spec laptop (from what I can see, laptops start at only £100 or so more than netbooks)

b) the hefty mobile broadband contracts are worth it - I'm looking at a monthly fee of £30 for 3 Gb and have no idea how much surfing I can do on that or even if the speed is acceptable

If you have any experience to share or advice to offer, please let me know.

13 comments:

Leigh said...

You could have your home pc on and use a program to "dial in" to your home pc, effectively browsing your pc remotely, so no net restrictions! That way you can actually launch WoW while in work but be warned it's very laggy but you can chat to people no bother at all :P Only downside is your PC needs to be on + your broadband so extra cost for electricity.

Other ways around firewalls include:
- Using google translator to translate your page from English --> English
- Use a proxy....not the online ones that run in your browser, rather change the connection settings of your browser to be routed through a particular proxy. Some sites offer this IP address but it's easy to set one up on a machine and have it running outside their network i.e. your home pc like above.

Only other way is social engineering, get onto your IT department telling them certain sites are blocked and you can't access it and need it for work. Keep bugging them and ask them for their proxy address to access these sites. Every decent IT team has their own proxy....and this is speaking from someone who works in IT :D

Ho Ho said...

When I see something I can't access for some weird reason I just SSH to my home Linux box and from there I can access anything :)

Anonymous said...

Or just simply use a web proxy like: hidemyass.com or http://tupbu.com/ or alike. It's easy, fast and works :)

Anonymous said...

Sorry i feel your pain, no help unfortunatley sorry.

Merlot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Merlot said...

Thanks for all your ideas guys.

Proxy websites are all blocked, and any Google translation of a blocked site is also blocked.

I think some of the more technical solutions are out too. I work for a very large corporate body where just about everything is locked down and standardised - no ability for loading software or working around the blocks. Not that I'm particularly gifted in that area myself :P

One thing I haven't considered yet is an iPhone, although that probably wouldn't work out any cheaper than a mobile broadband contract for a laptop. Decisions decisions...

ShawndraKai said...

I feel your pain. I have given up on doing any research for my blog at work, doing it instead as I fall asleep, as I wake up, and listening to podcasts I have put on my Juke. It's not enough to do any real blogging, and my posting has become less frequent.
No answers here, just commiserating.

Anonymous said...

Write the blog posts in a text or html editor, then upload when you get home?

Merlot said...

Thanks Shawndra!

Andrew, good plan, but access to Blogger is fine. It's all the other sites I need for research that are blocked (e.g. wowhead, wowwiki etc).

Anonymous said...

I used to use blogger until my jobs firewall blocked it about a year ago and I made the switch to Wordpress. Blogger came off the blocking list for quite some time but as of about 3 weeks ago it's back on.. now I can't read any Blogger users blogs unless I'm at home. Boo hiss! Could always make the switch to Wordpress?

Anonymous said...

Ignore my comment. I misunderstood the issue until it was posted and I read your other comments. Woops =X

Anonymous said...

if you have a research question google it with more detail, that way the information you seek should be readable in the summary eg "wowhead mindflay" the summary shows " Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 450 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%" as an example In addition it might find a trusted site with that information reproduced eg other blogs/forums.. not as reliable as the original source but it should be enough to get most of the information you need.

Rubymelon said...

When I was in a situation where I couldn't have a blog website open for whatever reason, I opened up memopad. When you're done you can just email the post to yourself. So when you reach home, you can just post your text while you're logging on. And that won't eat up your play time:D