Help surviving IT lockdown

[GBerry]

I have recently started a new job, and have a couple of issues with the IT restrictions, even though I can understand the reasoning behind them.

 

1) Browser. We're stuck using IE6, and can't install anything. I eventually managed to get Firefox portable onto my machine, but even that was difficult, and when I open it, no pages will load. Is it likely that IT have some remote way of preventing anything other than IE6 accessing the internet, and if so, do I have any hope of getting round this?

 

2) Blocked websites. I'm not trying to access 2girls1cup or anything, but am trying to access sites like youtube, google image search etc for genuine, work-related reasons, and it's frustrating to have them blocked even though I understand the reasoning. It seems to be SurfControl software that is being used, but I have found various suggestions for bypassing their filters without any success.

 

Any help, particularly on the first issue, would be greatly appreciated

[el kido]

I have recently started a new job, and have a couple of issues with the IT restrictions, even though I can understand the reasoning behind them.

 

1) Browser. We're stuck using IE6, and can't install anything. I eventually managed to get Firefox portable onto my machine, but even that was difficult, and when I open it, no pages will load. Is it likely that IT have some remote way of preventing anything other than IE6 accessing the internet, and if so, do I have any hope of getting round this?

 

2) Blocked websites. I'm not trying to access 2girls1cup or anything, but am trying to access sites like youtube, google image search etc for genuine, work-related reasons, and it's frustrating to have them blocked even though I understand the reasoning. It seems to be SurfControl software that is being used, but I have found various suggestions for bypassing their filters without any success.

 

Any help, particularly on the first issue, would be greatly appreciated

 

At that point I say bring in your own pc or laptop. Bypassing it will get you cannd.

[cvanderhoef]

Aren't there policies in place where you can ask for a website to be "unlocked" if you can prove it is for work purposes?

[nigsy]

A lot of businesses are "stuck" with IE6 because of parts of the buisines that use web based portals for accessing things like Oracle or SAP or other software suites are only supported to IE6 and may not work properly on IE8

 

Do not try to work your way around "Smurf Control" this will only get you sacked!!

If you have a real and demonstratable need to access "you-tube" or indeed "2 girls one Cup" there is probably a process in place for you to request access.

[Rmc]

You need to talk to your IT administrator, your trying to go around security policy could and probably would cause your company's info to be hacked.

[GBerry]

Thanks all for the warnings, I guess I'll just stick with the annoyances of IE6 and blocked websites.

 

There are procedures for access to websites, but I'd have a hard job providing anything tangible. Something like google image search isn't fundamental to doing my job, it's just a handy tool on occasion - for example, as a quick way to see what a piece of software or error message look like, or as a quick way to find a graph of something. Similarly for something like youtube, it can have some useful tutorial type videos - my company website actually embeds youtube videos!