

Do you guys know of any website blocking software? - jamongkad

Hi guys like the title says do you gents know of any website blocking software to prevent employees from wasting time surfing popular sites like myspace , facebook and the like? thanks a bunch!
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dkokelley
Just install a logging program in your router and post the logs in a public
place. That way, your employees will have to own up to any wasted time instead
of find ways to circumvent it. It's also a good accountability program for
your employees.

This idea just came to mind. Do you guys think something like this would work?

As far as your original question goes, I don't know of anything off the top of
my head, but you could always get a sort of parental guardian box the plugs in
between your router and your internet connection. Those usually have a block
by site function built into them, as well as password protecting certain sites
(you know, if you want to bypass your own security to get to HN or whatever).

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BrandonM
It's a reasonable idea, but I don't know if "public" is the best approach.
Unless you meant "internally-public", in which case I think it's a pretty good
idea.

Unfortunately, in most cases it is not simply employee laziness that drives
people to waste time online, but a dull, non-challenging task which could be
completed in an hour or two if it did not mean simply receiving additional
work with no real benefit. In other words, I feel like the situations where it
would be necessary would almost always be the same situations where the
employee is actually acting rationally.

~~~
dkokelley
Yeah I meant internally public. You can't have outsiders (competitors) knowing
what your employee's surfing habits are. They could have certain projects
compromised.

Of course if your employees are visiting these sites out of sheer boredom,
then there's another issue taking place. If the management (don't know how
large this company is) is good enough, they could watch the trends in their
employee's surfing and turn it into a time to learn why they're spending so
much time on non-work related sites, and hopefully provide them with more
meaningful and efficient work.

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noonespecial
Use a linux box at your gateway, squid and squidguard:

<http://www.squidguard.org/>

Then use iptables to do a transparent redirect of all outbound web traffic to
you squid server:

[http://www.squid-cache.org/mail-archive/squid-
users/200404/0...](http://www.squid-cache.org/mail-archive/squid-
users/200404/0560.html)

This way you can actually have your employees end up a page of your design
that says "Quit wastin' time foo'" whenever they hit a site you've placed on
the block list. Mr. T. is optional of course.

------
theoneill
YC's own <http://8aweek.com>

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jamongkad
Actually I just installed one on my browser the other day. But I want
something that I could help me keep logs of their browsing so come review time
I have something that could keep them on their toes.

~~~
garbowza
Btw, we'd love to chat more with you about this. Please email zack@8aweek.com

~~~
jamongkad
Sure Zack will email you as soon as I have some free time.

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gscott
If each employee is using Windows on there workstation you could modify the
hosts file to redirect the domain to some other address, like your company
intranet. They will never figure it out. This is free and dead on easy.

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=window...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=windows+host+file+block+websites)

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rms
<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22start+using+cgiproxy%22>

The point of installing blocking software is so you can fire people that
circumvent it and go to facebook without your explicit, written permission?

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pmb
Trust your employees to act like adults.

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jamongkad
I wish it were that simple friend.

~~~
almost
It is that simple. If you can't do that then you've got more problems then a
few people surfing some websites.

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noelchurchill
Opendns.com does what you want and a lot more.

