How does one block Facebook?

[nic777]

I have one employee who can not concentrate at work. He is hooked on facebook. How does one block it?

I have 3 PC's in my office connected to a ethernet hub. I use iburst as my SP. I would also like to block on his PC, any forums, IRC chat, skype, yahoo mes, MSN mes etc etc..... the list goes on.

Ok, now how is the iburst connected to the network?

Im going to assume there is a router (and maybe not a "hub"?) where all the PCs are connected to and where the iBurst is also connected to.

What you can do is go into the router and look for something called Filters or something similiar.

What you can do depends on your router. On our office router, we can grant and deny access on MAC address (so you can target a specific PC) and then you can also block via URL so anything that says facebook.com will be blocked. You can also go further and block the associated IPs.

Hope that helps. If he goes on his phone, then you know he is going obviously wasting his time and you can call on him on that.

 

[Ludjer]

well there is no real way to block face books because of proxys so your best idea is do give him a warning

 

[kris860911]

Contact the facedBook admin. Ask nicely if they will shut down the site. It's not a big site is it?

 

[shadow_man]

well there is no real way to block face books because of proxys so your best idea is do give him a warning

Nigga PLz, have you not hear of the awful websense, it blocks almost every proxy known to lan and the only way i've found to get past it is to connect to my home network and browse at my ****ty slow upload speed.

J

 

[ld13]

have you not heard of the awful websense, it blocks almost every proxy known to man and the only way i've found to get past it is to connect to my home network and browse at my slow upload speed.

It only takes One little crack in your defences you know, to bring the whole house down.

 

[Vampir0]

well there is no real way to block face books because of proxys so your best idea is do give him a warning

ROFL!! Proxys FTW!!! Whahahaha

If he is clever, he will jsut use a proxy and it will be hard to block him from all proxys

Just ask him to stop. Give him a warning to make him think it is serious.

 

[shadow_man]

It only takes One little crack in your defences you know, to bring the whole house down.

Websense is pretty on form even blocks binary addresses and if it leaves a proxy open its closed within a week and the search for a new one begins. Only way i've found to get past it is connecting to my home pc and browsing via ****ty upload, but the work admins dont like this as they dont deem it secure, but ah what they dont know cant hurt em.

J

 

[ubercal]

ROFL!! Proxys FTW!!! Whahahaha

If he is clever, he will jsut use a proxy and it will be hard to block him from all proxys

Just ask him to stop. Give him a warning to make him think it is serious.

The sys admin can just compile a list of all proxies and block them on ISA or just add them into the hosts file and use ntfs permissions to prevent the user from removing them

 

[daffy]

The sys admin can just compile a list of all proxies and block them on ISA or just add them into the hosts file and use ntfs permissions to prevent the user from removing them

You've never tried that.. have you?

 

[lsuacner]

Just to throw a stone in the bush, networking with old pals, on behalf of your company, could be beneficial. So ensure their performance at work is adequate, else let them be.

 

[Xarog]

You guys know that a modified hosts file will still work even if you try to use proxies, right?

 

[Ludjer]

The sys admin can just compile a list of all proxies and block them on ISA or just add them into the hosts file and use ntfs permissions to prevent the user from removing them

i want to see you do this. did you know that there are more then 1000 web based poxys (CGI/PHP) that can browse sites for you there is no *List* that you want it will take hours to do this also, there are ones that are not nowen but just a few friends know it cause some one puts it up on his web server.
you cant make a list of proxy's its impossible cause only half of them are Public

You guys know that a modified hosts file will still work even if you try to use proxies, right?

does it work with web based proxy's?? because on the internet address bar it does not say www.facebook.com
this is how my one looks
http://www.ludjersdomain.com/cgi-bin/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/010110A/http/www.facebook.com/
i have not configured my one to work with ssl connection so for now i can use face book, but i also dont need to use a proxy to get onto face book cause even our headmaster uses facebook rofls

 

[duderoo]

because on the internet address bar it does not say www.facebook.com
this is how my one looks
http://www.ludjersdomain.com/cgi-bin/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/010110A/http/www.facebook.com/

What is the text in bold then......looks like facebook.com to me.

 

[ld13]

You guys know that a modified hosts file will still work even if you try to use proxies, right?

Depends on what type of proxy you use. My Web Based proxy does not use the Hosts file at all. The hosts file is only used to get the IP of my Website, but after that the Website gets the IP of the site i want to visit. I can even completely remove any traces of the site I'm visiting by obscuring the URL (Rotate13 and Base64), keeping the cookie on the webserver itself and Stripping the Meta data and Titles of the website..
eg.
I'm using my proxy to post here atm. FF shows the current URL as:

http://www.wolfie.za.org/[Removed-b.../io/arjercyl.cuc?qb=arjercyl&c=1199021&hl=3ff

 

[Abe]

Just for interest sake, blocking Facebook at one company I know of saw the internet usage go from 770Meg per day down to 520Meg per day. What makes it worse is that it was impacting people using internet for business very seriously as important emails were being delayed for up to 45 minutes. I have also seen situations where the usage was over 50% of traffic for a day.

 

[ld13]

What makes it worse is that it was impacting people using internet for business very seriously as important emails were being delayed for up to 45 minutes.

What blocking method were they using then that has this kind of a negative impact?

 

[mancombseepgood]

I don't get facebook and the big deal with wanting to see hoardes of low res photos and names on the web.

 

[shadowfox]

People just seem to find it addictive ... I only use it at home though ... or pop on during my lunchbreak ...

 

[bwana]

What blocking method were they using then that has this kind of a negative impact?

I believe he was referring to when it wasnt being blocked.

 

[Abe]

I believe he was referring to when it wasnt being blocked.

Yes, they are on a 512K uncapped account so the FB usage was causing mail delays and timeouts for people doing legitimate work. It was blocked on the router (Netgear) and immediately things were much better.