Website blocking on Local PC [aka bypassing work content filtering]

J

joy_Energiser

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Hi Guys!

I really hope some one can help me identify whats blocking access to websites on my work laptop.
So far I have identified that it blocks words in the URL, I have noticed it blocks "Facebook","Youtube","Torrent" and so on, I know it's not at a network level, because when I take my laptop home or when I tether the laptop to my phone and connect it still blocks it, so that leads me to believe that it's a setting or software on a local level that I can fix.

It's hugely annoying, not because I cant hit up facebook or youtube, but because I can't even read articles that have the word Facebook or youtube in the URL! I can't log in to disqus with my facebook account to make comments, it's just generally making my internet browsing a real painful experience on my laptop.

So far I have checked the hosts file in windows directory,
I have checked the restricted sites on Control Panel>Internet Options
I have uninstalled the antivirus(semantic Endpoint Protection)
I have tried various different web browsers, all get blocked,(Chrome simply crashes and I have to open it up and crash it again to get it to reset, as it saves the last site you were on and tries to reopen it and crashes over and over)
I use https://www.filterbypass.me/ to watch the odd youtube video but Java scrip is disabled and I can't use disqus.

How can I identify what service is causing this ? I tried ending various process one by one until I crashed the Laptop 3 times now, so that's pretty laborious.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Here's a picture of what the blocked site looks like.

blocked.jpg
 
Last edited:
joy_Energiser said:
Hi Guys!

I really hope some one can help me identify whats blocking access to websites on my work laptop.
So far I have identified that it blocks words in the URL, I have noticed it blocks "Facebook","Youtube","Torrent" and so on, I know it's not at a network level, because when I take my laptop home or when I tether the laptop to my phone and connect it still blocks it, so that leads me to believe that it's a setting or software on a local level that I can fix.

It's hugely annoying, not because I cant hit up facebook or youtube, but because I can't even read articles that have the word Facebook or youtube in the URL! I can't log in to disqus with my facebook account to make comments, it's just generally making my internet browsing a real painful experience on my laptop.

So far I have checked the hosts file in windows directory,
I have checked the restricted sites on Control Panel>Internet Options
I have uninstalled the antivirus(semantic Endpoint Protection)
I have tried various different web browsers, all get blocked,(Chrome simply crashes and I have to open it up and crash it again to get it to reset, as it saves the last site you were on and tries to reopen it and crashes over and over)
I use https://www.filterbypass.me/ to watch the odd youtube video but Java scrip is disabled and I can't use disqus.

How can I identify what service is causing this ? I tried ending various process one by one until I crashed the Laptop 3 times now, so that's pretty laborious.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Here's a picture of what the blocked site looks like.

View attachment 330575
Click to expand...

Is this on your home network or work?
 
Uninstalling AV and messing around trying to bypass the work proxy - a sure way to get fired.

There must be some local app installed that specifically blocks website that your work has deemed as inappropriate. If its a work laptop its there for a reason.
 
Group Policy Editor was used by your IT administrators and trying to change the settings will only help until the next time that you log onto your company's network again. The internet server of the company also would contain a company wide firewall to control what content you can access online.
 
Last edited:
Ryansr said:
Group Policy Editor was used by your IT administrators and trying to change the settings will only help until the next time that you log onto your company's network again. The internet server of the company also would contain a company wide firewall to control what content you can access online.
Click to expand...

I would have assumed that too, but on our Wifi on our phones we can all access facebook and youtube ect. I have seen other people can access youtube on the network from their PC, they must be watching just me then :P
 
joy_Energiser said:
I would have assumed that too, but on our Wifi on our phones we can all access facebook and youtube ect. I have seen other people can access youtube on the network from their PC, they must be watching just me then :P
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it would seem that way. Have you tried contacting your IT helpdesk to enquire?
 
joy_Energiser said:
I would have assumed that too, but on our Wifi on our phones we can all access facebook and youtube ect. I have seen other people can access youtube on the network from their PC, they must be watching just me then :P
Click to expand...

This is definitely group policy, unlucky. You are obviously in a different OU than your colleagues.

Any admin worth his salt would have disallowed you changing anything under the local policy on the laptop, you will have to speak to your IT dept, I would stop messing around with it, unless you are keen on finding new work.
 
how funny would it be if someone changed the name of this thead to facebook blocked at work?

:twisted:
 
Deadmanza said:
This is definitely group policy, unlucky. You are obviously in a different OU than your colleagues.

Any admin worth his salt would have disallowed you changing anything under the local policy on the laptop, you will have to speak to your IT dept, I would stop messing around with it, unless you are keen on finding new work.
Click to expand...

This ^

Surprised you are able to uninstall AV.

Trying to bypass the security settings in order to gain access to something you are not supposed to access is a breach of most corporate policies. Keep doing that and you will be surfing from home permanently.
 
DNS tunneling / Live Linux disk are a few ways off the top of my head that would get around this.

The issue? You'll get yourself fired, so rather don't.

Smarter people than you (hopefully) are monitoring the network.
 
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