Usenet allowed from work?

You don't let somebody screw with your livelihood would taking action against it. This is why I advocate using every countermeasure humanly possible to avoid blocking and/or detection.

However, you can fool the boss by hiding where you are going with an anonymity service, or an open proxy. They would know you went to a certain address, but would not know where you went BEYOND that address.

I dont see anything unethical about wanting to grow your business. Internet radio is how I make my LIVING. And you dont let some filtering program mess with that, without a fight. If you, as network admins, don't like it, tough, this is how I make my living, and will use and advocate the use of every possible countermeasure out there.

As long as you are doing your work, there is no reason not to allow Internet radio in the workplace, and nothing unethical about listening to it, regardless of what company policy may say one way or the other.

It can be spotted, yes, but they do not know where you are going BEYOND that proxy or anonymity service.

When 15 meg FIOS connections become more commonplace, they will be available for around US$50 per month, a good bargain for a 15 meg connection. This is less than than what they would pay for 1.5 meg T1 service.

And again, I must say that listening to Internet radio is NOT either unethical, or abuse of company resources. You are entitled to your opinion, but I say that it is NOT unethical or an abuse of company resources to listen to Internet radio.

And no one here is claiming that "Growing" your business is unethical, just your method is unethical.

And filtering programs can easily stop your connection, and there is no fight, people don't have a "Right" to connect to anything non-business related from work.

Your advocating abuse only shows two things: 1, you are unethical and that carries over into your life and business, 2, you are easy to block but you seem to mistakenly think you are not.

And you seem to think that Company resources are free and don't impact other workers - what about the chap that is trying to process orders why

10 of his friends are consuming bandwidth that could make his job quicker - that would constitute a real loss to the company, one they could measure in $.

Why do you think it matters where, as long as it's identified as a non- business function/address that's all it takes. We've already fired people for this type of abuse after a documented warning and it happens all the time.

Your opinion means nothing against company policy.

If it violates company policy, uses company resources against company policy, then violating company policy is Unethical and may get them fired.

Chew on this, the RIAA, as part of a new royalties deal, is trying to make all internet raido stations do something akin to what Rhapsody does not, to thwart piraacy via strearipping.

The stations would be required to send the stream with DRM on it. This means that network admins, in Sweden, the U.S, and the U.K., would not be able to gather evidence to fire someone without being in violation of the laws that make it illegal to break a DRM scheme. While DRM can be a nuisance, this is one place where it can be useful, in that employers cannot attempt to monitor or intercept a DRM encrypted stream without breaking the law. Sure, you know the stream is there, but if you tried to intercept it you would be committing a felony crime that carry 2 years jail in Sweden, and 5 to 10 years in the U.S. and the U.K. Employers in Sweden, the U.S., and the U.K. could still fire someone for it, but they would have to find another reason to fire them, to avoid trouble with the law, becuase the streams would be using an DRM encryption scheme that would make it a felony to intercept in those three countries. As the saying goes, "The book will be open, but the pages will all be in an unreadable language", so this DRM requirement, if the RIAA and SoundExhcange gets their way, will employers over a barrell, as far as gathering enough evidence to fire somebody with cause.

Yet you advocate screwing with someone elses livelihood.

And for doing so, the employee can be fired.

So you are a scam artist.

Chew on this: All I have to see is a Connection to a non-business partner, doesn't matter what it is or how much or what data, and I know that a user is screwing around.

So, you failed to understand, it doesn't matter what the content is, if it's connected to a NONBUSINESS PARTNER it's a violation of company policy.

So, all of your extraneous crap means nothing, we don't care what the content is, what proxy you use, etc... If the connection is not to a business partner or approved site then it's a violation - that means that you are still Unethical, you have no chance of subverting this on a properly configured security model, and the person, if they did find a hole, would be found quickly and reprimanded that may include being terminated.

So, again, it doesn't matter what the content is, why data, what color the sky is - all that matters is a Connection to a nonapproved site, that's all it takes. This makes your DRM mantra meaningless, as there is no violation of the law in firing someone for violating company policy and the proof is the connection, not the content.

The business doesn't need more bandwidth. The users have 3 alternatives: - Listen to webradio at home

- Buy a plain old radio (you know, those wireless things that use FM...)

- Get fired

Juergen Nieveler

There are a number of other options,

-Bring their music with them, they have these neat MP3 player gadgets out now, download playlists or podcasts or whatever floats their boat. I hear even Apple might release one, one day.

-Bring a satellite radio receiver from home.

-Provide their own connectivity at the office ("We the people" had our own DSL line at one place I worked for our own personal use -- Admittedly we were an ISP, so it wasn't a big deal, but it did isolate the business traffic from the non-business traffic for those of us with our own PCs)

It used to be possible to do this with dial-up access, when it was more common. Just plug your own external modem into the computer, plug into the phone line, and you were good to go. But since they dont make external modems anymore, this is no longer an option, plus dial-up Internet is a dying industry.

"good to go" find another job with a different employer if you were caught doing it at my workplace. We had a distinct policy on the matter, and the computer support people were into asking questions if they found a modem -- asking the -supervisors- questions, that is.

And most businesses pay per call at that time, and they still make external modems. The practice is still unethical and against almost every company's policy.

In those days we would follow the connection via phone number/extension on the call logging system - tie that to a time/desk and then fire the person if they did it more than once.

The one advantage of an external modem is that you did you have to leave it connected to the computer. You could just simply unplug it and take it home with you at night, so that if they checked your computer after hours, they would not see anything out of the ordinary. One problem with external modems is that they are usually only 28K modems, which would not allow listening to many webcasts, as many of them are now at least 32K, if not more.

But there are other more expensive options, though I dont think many people would be willing to pay another $60 per month just to evade monitoring and detection by network admins. You could get an unlimited data plan from your celluar provider, and plug your internet-enabled cell phone into your workstation using a USB interface, but I dont think many people would be willing to pay $60 a month just to be able to listen to web radio at work, even though it would have the advantage of the traffic being handle by the celluar carrier and not the company network, so nothing would show up when the network admins examined the network logs.

LOL - External modems have been 56k for a LONG time and taking it home doesn't keep you from being caught - most companies log ever in/out call and time, and if your phone is connected for several hours it's a large red flag - much like a HTTP connection would be.

And no, they can't evade, as any connection to a computer by a data device will show in the event logs.

Except that the workstation will show that the network was disconnected or a foreign device was connected not to mention other event log entries. Oh, and lets not forget the security implications of connecting a foreign, non-secure, network to a machine on the company network and then connecting it back to the company network....

So, again, you show that you don't know ANYTHING about network security, about detection, about how to find your unethical listeners, and you advocate activity that will get them fired and diminishes the company network resource.

The one DISADVANTAGE, however, is that the dialin-number of your ISP sticks up like a sore thumb on the call detail record of your workplace's PBX. "You talked 100 hours last month to 555-xxxx - but that number is not listed as one of our customers. Private phone calls are not allowed in this company... good bye!".

Juergen Nieveler

And of course there was the option of using wardialers on the internal phone network - yes, some people ARE dumb enough to keep the modem connected.

A friend of mine uses a private laptop with bluetooth and a 3G mobile to do private stuff - but in his case it's only IM stuff, which is not bandwidth-hungry (and 3G is pay-per-volume in .de). Technically he's both violating and not-violating company policy...

Juergen Nieveler

It would not be unethical if you paid for the call yourself using your calling cards. Its just a matter of putting enough commas at the right place in the dialing sequence, after the ATDT, to give the phone company enough time to process the number and connect the call. You would also need to program the modem to wait the maximum time of 255 seconds (It is ATS7=255, IIRC). Since you are getting the bill for the calls, and not them, nothing suspicious will ever show up. Its just a matter of having the modem dial 1 800 CALL ATT, having the modem wait a few seconds, then dialing your credit card and PIN number, then waiting more time for the phone company to process the call and connect you.

If you are paying the bills for the call, then it would not be unethical, becuase its your money paying for the call, and not the company.

Its just like the guy that once gabbed with me from his work, on my talk show once. He gave me the direct dial number to his desk, and I called him. Since I called him, instead of him calling me, nothing would never show up on the company's phone bill, so management will never know what he was up to. I made two calls to his desk that day, one 28 minute, and another 45 minute call. I had a brief disruption in my internet service, which cuased the call to get dropped, and I had to redial hte call. Becuase I called him, the company would never see anything on their telephone bill, and would never know what was going on. Since the call was on my dime, and not the company, there was nothing unethical about him gabbing with me on my show for a total of 73 minutes on my talk show. Since I use Skype for outgoing calls, it only costs about US$.02 per minute to call, way cheaper that what the phone bill would have been for the company if he had called me, instead of me calling him, becuase the call would have cost about 12.5 times as much (about 25 cents per minute).

Using your OWN laptop, with your OWN 3G connection, paying for it with your OWN MONEY would NOT be a violation of company policy. What you do with your OWN MONEY, as long as its legal, CANNOT be dicated to your by your company (at least not in the U.S., U.K., or Australia), simply becuase your

3G carrier is handling the traffic, and not your comapny network. Since its on YOUR dime, the company has NO SAY in what you do with service you are paying for OUT OF YOUR OWN POCKET. It is NOT unethical to use services you are paying for out of your own pocket, becuase its not costing the companyh anything.

And I have seen an increasing number of connections from various 3G mobile Internet services from all over the globe, probably people using their laptops to avoid blocking and/or monitoring by the company.

And there is unlimited 3G service now, in the U.S. and in Australia, that costs more, but its worth it, if you want to avoid monitoring and/or blocking by your employer.