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If you happen to sit behind a Company Firewall, or you have a restrictive ISP on your hands; you are probably having problems trying to use MSN, Live, Facebook, Tweeter etc. This is of course very annoying at best – tho I can see why companies see the need to restrict what kind of Internet activity their employees can access while at work. Not every site out there is what I would call “Work Safe”.
That being said – sometimes you may find yourself in the situation where you are doing work related research – and end up at restricted sites – what then? Okay, I know that one is a bit far-fetched, you would probably just want to be able to use your Facebook or Tweeter or whatever. So Being the nice guy that I am – here are Three ways to breach security…
1. Anonymous Surfing – Proxy Wise
There are literally hundreds or even thousands of free proxies offering to hide you from your ISP or Company Firewall. Some are fake (of course), some place large ads on your screen so you can’t even read the page you are looking for, and some are in fact very good. Some Company Firewalls not only block sites from content or URLs, but also based on the language or country – so you might need to try a few.
The following list are amongst my favorites:
- hidemyass.com
- can’t bust me
- anonr.com
What is a Proxy, anyways ?
A Proxy is a server that fetch the information you want, but without revealing your true identity or location. Think of it as a two-way mirror, the person standing in a dark room, on one side of it, can see the person in the other room (Where the lights are on), but not the other way around. Therefor your ISP or Company Firewall can only see the Proxy Site you are surfing to, but not the site you are actually viewing.
All the free Proxies are filled with ads and it may be difficult to see how to use it. However, If you look closely you will find a text field with a prefilled URL, like http://www.youtube.com (or similar). Delete that text and enter your desired URL.
Some Proxies also offer settings that let you block such things as cookies, JavaScript etc. that actually might tell your ISP and Company Firewall what you are really up to.
You can find more at sites like this one: http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html. This site provides a list of hundreds of free proxies and in which country they reside.
2. WebPage as PDF
If you are not in a hurry, this is also a nice way to fool your Firewall and ISP. Create a PDF of any URL and have it sent to you by Email or as a PDF Download. I have previously written about two solutions, html-to-pdf and PrimoOnline (By NitroPDF) (Read here).
Which of them You use, depends on how restrictive your environment is. If you cannot download anything from an external URL, you should use the Email Solution.
Granted, it is not the most effective way of surfing the net, but as we say here in Norway: “Distress, teaches the naked woman to spin yarn“. Yes, I do Know the English saying: “Distress is the mother of invention“, but I like the Norwegian version better. . .
How do you do It ?
- Open the URL (Html2PDF | PrimoOnline)
- Type in the URL of choice and Email Address if applicable
- and Enjoy
3. Remote desktop
This is probably the sneakiest of them all. Set up a VPN or a Remote Desktop to your Home Computer. That way you may use your home based Computer and Internet as your own personal Proxy. This may sometimes require some permission settings from the Network Administrator, tho I don’t foresee that as being much of a problem. After all, you do work from home on occasion don’t you ??
I recommend the Free Service from www.logMeIn.com, because I have tested it and I know that it works. It is also a well-known Service and most network administrators should have no issues with you using it. If you need to download files using this method, you can email the files from your home Email to your Office.
You may also consider the other free solution from LogMeIn, previously mentioned here on MintyWhite (Read Here). Just remember that this one requires you to have someone on the other site to grant you full access (when it’s set up).
About Thomas
Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...
If you are going to use proxies, make sure your techs can’t trace them back to you!
I have used them and been caught so be very careful.
If you are going to use proxies, make sure your techs can’t trace them back to you!
I have used them and been caught so be very careful.
If you are going to use proxies, make sure your techs can’t trace them back to you!
I have used them and been caught so be very careful.
that is of course something to be aware of.
which is why most proxies have options you can enable / disable
Have you tried to double proxy :) ??
that is of course something to be aware of.
which is why most proxies have options you can enable / disable
Have you tried to double proxy :) ??
that is of course something to be aware of.
which is why most proxies have options you can enable / disable
Have you tried to double proxy :) ??
Yeah I have. They seem to a system that tracks anything even remotely like a proxy (even the word proxy) and reports it immediately. Kinda a pain…
Yeah I have. They seem to a system that tracks anything even remotely like a proxy (even the word proxy) and reports it immediately. Kinda a pain…
I have been reading up on this and what your Network Administrator is doing is read through the web access logs which will show any website visited and they might also have applied filters to flag such sites.
It makes sense to do so because more and more social network sites get attacked by virus and malware (unknowingly of course).
So if you do need to access blocked sites from work you have two choices – ask the network administrator to put specific sites /you know are safe) on the whitelist, or use the Remote Desktop, surfing from Home.
Yeah I have. They seem to a system that tracks anything even remotely like a proxy (even the word proxy) and reports it immediately. Kinda a pain…
I have been reading up on this and what your Network Administrator is doing is read through the web access logs which will show any website visited and they might also have applied filters to flag such sites.
It makes sense to do so because more and more social network sites get attacked by virus and malware (unknowingly of course).
So if you do need to access blocked sites from work you have two choices – ask the network administrator to put specific sites /you know are safe) on the whitelist, or use the Remote Desktop, surfing from Home.
tweeter??? isn’t it supposed to be ” Twitter”?
Also, that picture has inappropriate language and a hint of pornography. Please do not post these kind of pictures on www.mintywhite.com . I am sure Rich does not approve this.
tweeter??? isn’t it supposed to be ” Twitter”?
tweeter??? isn’t it supposed to be ” Twitter”?
Also, that picture has inappropriate language and a hint of pornography. Please do not post these kind of pictures on www.mintywhite.com . I am sure Rich does not approve this.
Also, that picture has inappropriate language and a hint of pornography. Please do not post these kind of pictures on www.mintywhite.com . I am sure Rich does not approve this.
i have use logmein and its really works
its really a nice article.