The internets at work have gone on complete lockdown of late and its driving me crazy. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube have always been blocked as long as I’ve been there. I could care less about Facebook or MySpace as I logged off of FB a year ago and was never on MS. But every so often someone will send a funny clip that’s hosted on YouTube or there’s a trending topic I’d like to follow on Twitter but I can’t get to either because they’re blocked. That wasn’t so bad because there were other sites to check out. That is, until recently.

The last few weeks have seen a wide variety of sites and pictures blocked. In addition to the social networking sites being denied, these have also been added to the list:

I am going to ask that the last one be given a reprieve as I use it often when sending large files to people outside our organization. We do have FTP sites set up, but they’re horrible and are down more often than not.

It’s not just sites being blocked. Images on sites that I read on my Google Reader are also restricted. Most posts from Crazy Days and Nights have pictures in them, but all I see in my reader is white space where the picture should be. When I actually visit the CDAN site, all of the pictures on there show up as white boxes.

I know, it’s my employer’s prerogative to block any sites they wish to. But this is getting a wee bit ridiculous. For now, webmail is still allowed, but I keep waiting to get the company’s big “this page cannot be accessed from our premises” screen. I always feel like the kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar when I land on that screen. I could try to hide behind a proxy, hide my ass seems to be the popular choice, but I don’t want to piss off the IT people.

If webmail does get blocked, I guess I’ll have to learn how to communicate with smoke signals.

Related posts:

  1. Verbal Diarrhea
  2. Grumblings and the Grapevine
  3. Mixed Bag
  4. Muster
  5. Wandering Videographer
  6. This and That
  7. Office Revamp
  8. Talked