Hi all.
"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?"
Recently the administrator of my college restricts some words such as 'linux', 'redhat', 'fedora', 'forum'. Users get "access denied" whenever they try to access to any URL that contains these forbidden words. Result, users are unable to logon to educational sites and forums, example, webdeveloper.com/forum/.
Disallowing users to access URLs that contain words like 'sex' and 'mp3' is a very common practice. However blacklisting common words like 'linux' and 'forum' is unacceptable. Don't you think that is an unwise decision?
"WHY WOULD HE DO SO?"
No idea, following are some possibilities.
Possibility 1: He got abused for posting thread like "How to make love with W!ndows".
Possibility 2: He is a 100% big fan of Micro$oft, and he thinks that's his time to do something for his community.
According to the center manager, someone downloaded open source software and caused some of the PCs to be formatted. Sounding reasonable but hey, can a mp3 plug-in for xmms destroy/crash a PC?
If it could, we all now see how powerful open source is.
PS: You might be thinking why do I know it was a mp3 plugin. Think again.
"TAKE BACK THE WEB!!"
I have tried...
(1) Using Portable Firefox, previously it did the trick but it no longer works. The administrator is getting smarter, he disables "direct connection".
(2) Typing IP address instead of name. But it's troublesome and the administrator will notice very soon.
(3) Using anonymous proxy services. But the administrator has just banned the web site. He got a log on his hands okay
"WHAT YOU GONNA DO?"
Since that the administrator has becomes very paranoid. So my questions are...
(1) Could anyone suggest a solution to users like I am, in order to surf Internet freely in college?
(2) Using anonymous proxy services such as unipeak.com can bypass the censorship of URLs but sooner or later the administrator will notice it on log and ban that particular web site. So, could anyone suggest a tools/script that doesn't require installation (because users are unable to install any program on the PC), example, HTML file.
(3) Is my college the only which having this issue? Did your administrator restrict users accessing LINUX-related sites?
PS: This post doesn't mean to be offensive towards any administrator. Knowing that administrators play a very important role in their network. *Salute* And, sorry for my very bad English.