And this is SurfControl in libraries, written , and concerning Rants, Software
I'm in the public library. They have the rather neat feature that you can use the net for free; good on the library! I've just been reading up about cross-compilation, and I followed a link to an IBM article, at http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/wi-zaurus/, which seems to no longer exist (thanks for that, IBM!). It's not in the Google Cache either, so off I went to the Wayback Machine. The URL http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/wi-zaurus/ is unavailable to me, because apparently it's been "blocked by SurfControl". Now, I don't blame the library particularly for putting in some blocking software, since they'd never get any government funding without it, but this is why blocking software is bad. You see, they have this big list of URLs that you shouldn't go to, but the Internet Archive would give you a way of getting to those URLs without visiting them directly. So, what's the solution, boys and girls? Yes! Block all of archive.org! Hooray for that! Thanks!
Morons.
The Peacefire people have a lot more to say about this, including examples of where blocking software is used by the manufacturers to push a political agenda, which is contemptible. Of course, I can't see that from here, because that site is also blocked by SurfControl. No hidden agenda there, obviously.
Update: Bloglines is blocked as well. Those damned seditious bloggers; can't have you reading any of that.
Comments
Tom
mrben
I suspect that the agenda of libraries is less from keeping you safe from the evils of the internet, and more about keeping themselves safe from the increasingly litigious society.
sil
mrben: increasingly litigious government rather than society, I think. There's a certain segment of the political bits of the world who would like, I think, to see libraries remain dusty rooms of mouldering books into which only retired colonels, blue-rinsed dowager duchesses, and kids on school trips go. Therefore, putting things like free internet access (free! none of this "pay a pund per fifteen minutes lark) in a library is ipso facto a bad thing and must be stopped. The librarians of the world are overcoming their glasses-on-a-chain-around-the-neck image by doing stuff like this, but if they're waging a constant battle against their funding agency they can't afford to be too outré, and so they end up having to accept things like blocking software to protect people from the evils of child pornography or MRSA or whatever this week's hotbutton is.
Anonymous
Any ideas on how to break through the surf control?
Adelle
I think surfcontrol sucks.. Im a student and practically EVERYTHING is banned. Sometimes we have free lessons in I.T., and I happen to have it about 3 or 4 times a week. All I really go on is Neopets.. even that has been blocked. I mean.. what 's so bad about that? Neopet porn? Give me a break.
Adelle
Neopets? I mean.. what 's so bad about that? Neopet porn?
Andrew Mullins
I am a student also and require the internet but surf control in my school has baned everything even ways to look at pictures like yahoo images. Some people are stupid like that I guess. Dose anyone have anything to get passed it other than mfp.hostwindsor.com and others listed above?
PLEASE
shadow
They call me shadow, I am a student like many of you and I can no longer stand this!! I and an elete team are working on a way to get passed the surf control. but so far ALL THE WAYS TO GET PASTED SURF CONTROL ARE BLOCKED BY SURF CONTROL!!! grrrrrr....don't worry, we're not giving up on this. I am very close to figuring out how to disable this and all help is accepted. email me if you have any hints or clues
Luicky
damn surfcontrol blocks everything i'm a top hacker so if any one finds a way to get pass surfcontrol and needs some help i'll be more than happy
P.S please someone mail me a way of getting pass surfcontrol
Lucky
I found a way go to this website http://www.proxykid.com
Leigha
hey EVERYONE!!! i go to a school where everything but email is blocked by surf control. will someone please email me and give some sort of hint. I'v tried alot but things are getting more advanced and im representing the school in finding a way to do this. PLEASE HELP!!!!!
thank you!
Anonymous Coward
ProxyKid does work, thanks heaps for that Lucky
Good luck to you hackers trying to bypass the SurfControl with other methods.
anonymous
It's a damn shame these folks are trying to control how you can use THEIR computers. I know they belong to the govt, but hey, you want unrestricted access, buy your own computer and internet access.
The reason their restricted is ABUSE.
sil
anonymous: I have no problem with blocking sites that would count as abuse. What I have a problem with is that it's not the government doing the blocking; it's a private company, SurfControl, and they're pushing an agenda which is different from the government's.
Lorn
Try www.stupidcensorship.com. It worked for me when my work banned us from going on Ebay - gits!
Bogdan Linchuk
Surfcontrol sucks!!!!!! A little while ago i bypassed it by typing .nyud.net:8090/ after .com But what do you know they blocked that. I can find another way to bypass it just i need to know how to find a ip address!!!!!!!!
Karlos
Hi, i'm just joing the que of people waiting for the answer which is how to get round this stupid surfcontrol. I've tried everything. Even my lecturers get cheased of with it please someone come up with an idea.
Karlos
I've used the method typing .nyud.net:8090/ after .com. For some websites it works for others it doesn't it's a pain. can someone email me when they find a way please
tom
you can go in to ms dos and type in ping or ip ping and it should tell you the ip adress and its mask :)
tom
ipconfig
works
the rest dont
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Joey
A quick tip, if the computer you're on has blocked access to command prompt you can easily access it by making a new text document, typing "command.com" without the "s and saving at a .bat file. When you execute it it should run cmd :P
Depending on how your surf control is set up this may work to be able to access google images if you can't do an image search. I've found it gets past our block on google image search quite easily.
Do a normal google search for whatever you want and add images into the search term.
So you do a normal search for say "cats images"
near the top of the results you should see thumbnails of pictures that it says are image results. Now normally if you click one of these thumbnails at our school it's blocked, but at the top of the screen if you can still see the "google image results frame" thing that normally shows the link to go to the full size image, near the search bar there should be a link that says "back to image results" and for some reason clicking that gets you around the filter at our school. It returns you to the google images search form and you can search whatever you want, even with the safe search filter off.
Don't know if this will work for anyone else, but I'm curious. I don't know how many other places even block google images, but I figured I'd try and help :P
Another reason why librarians will not inherit the earth. I hate this principle of almost pre-supposing guilt and stopping innocent behaviour. If you don't want someone to look at your website, then it's your problem to stop them looking at it or to track down the guilty critters once they have looked at it. This is like stopping people walking down my street to stop them burgling my house.
Not a bad idea on reflection, considering that our house is a conduit from the pubs to the more undesirable local housing.