Big a1

Morning guys,

Whats the general feeling towards non work related internet usage? I must admit to browsing scoobynet and the like quite a lot recently at work and i'm worried about getting called up on it.

Its quite a small company of around 35 pc users with one IT guy, no chance of anyone catching me on there as my back is to a wall . However i'm worried about it showing up on some sort of network usage list . Very little IT knowledge so i'm not sure what is plausable and whats not.

So am i worrying unneccesarily or not??

TIA

Reality

Saxo Boy's you man for this one .

"They" can and sometimes do watch what's going on with internet logs.

Scoobynet is unlikely to get you sacked unless your performance is suffering or they want you out for some other reason !

HTH

Brendan Hughes

You mean some people use SN outside work?

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

only on occasion

Account deleted by request

I hope my useage isn't checked...they'd find my **** stash

chop

BazH

Big Brother here monitors not only the sites visited but also the time spent browsing.

*logs off quickly*

eldudereno

I'm sure I would have received a written warning by now if we were monitored at our place

Big a1

Thats what I was thinking, however yesterday the IT guy was telling me about someone else at work who was being uncoporative and he used her high internet usage as a threat to do what he was asking. (just read that back and it was work related! )

Was unsure whethter this was a not so subtle hint directed at me??

What info can he access? i.e. sites visited or just time online? Could he for instance find out the content of all pages visited?

Would it hold water if I was caught saying that the screen is minimized for the majority of the time logged on??

cheers

astraboy

I have recived warnings for using scoobynet @ work in the past.
However I have managed to get around this using the following methods:

Back to the wall (well sort of, the only person who can see my screen does no work whatsoever so he cant pull me up on it)

Poker face. Obviously, you surf at work to have fun, but too much fun can give the game away, especially smiling and laughter, however much you surpress it. Make sure you have your "**** miserable corporate slug" face on whenever you are surfing and more importantly, whatever you're looking at.

Make sure you have no favourites, no bookmarks & no URL's in the address bar. The only sites I have on there are yahoo.co.uk and MSN.com. Everything else is accessed using links via the search functions. The first thing they check is these and then make backup checks when they find loads. This was backed up when an audit was carried out and a friend with 150 favourites was hauled over the coals and I got away scott free (arf arf!).

Devlop touch typing skills. Every click of a keystroke you make is incriminating and when they hear loads they could put two and two together. However if you slowdown a little you can be almost silent in your typing. Just think like a Navy SEAL when you type "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast"

Obviously, if they check your net logs then you are screwed and I'm afraid I cant help about that, however, the above should minimise the suspiscion they need to check your access logs.

Remember, skiving off on the internet is one of the essential survival skills of modern times. Develop those to a level where you have gotten away with it for the past 5 years *puffs out chest* and everything else seems that little bit easier.
astraboy.

Gutmann pug

I'm assuming another way around it is to leave SN on at all times, well when your at your desk at least. Then when they check you could say you look first thing in the morning before your start time and just happen to leave it on all day. Then it wont show you jumping in and out every 5 mins.

Big a1

I must admit I have thought that but have wondered if they could check whether you are active on it or not?

Gutmann pug

No idea ......

davyboy

Internet monitoring software is way more complicated than you think then!

Every page, mouse click, download, image shown and search is logged.....EVERYTHING!

astraboy

point taken, but when theres 2499 other people in the building to look after, it is possible to "hide" amongst the rest of the traffic.
astraboy.

stevencotton

If there's a proxy running in the office and all traffic is going through that (common) then every single time you click on a link it can be logged.

HTTP is stateless, you can't say someone has been "browsing for an hour", you simply don't know, all you know is when links are clicked on and the rest is an assumption. But leaving SN up in a browser all day won't hide anything, they'll see every time you click something, if they're looking.

Reality

WOT He said.

The logs can make for very interesting reading when someone says I just leave it on all day - and they show you when you were accessing which pages and which threads to replied to etc etc etc.

As I said - If they want you out the logs give them everything they need to prove what you've been up to.

If however you haven't signed something saying they can log your internet usage you can sue the ******* for invading your privacy !

Reality

Until ScoobyNet gets into the top 50

OllyK

That's fine as long as you stay in 1 thread and don't refresh the screen. Most logs record every http request.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Our manager here spends 99% of the day looking at ****, so me looking at scoobynet isn't really a major issue!!!!

Big a1

bugger

ozzy

It depends on the company and their Internet usage policy. Larger companies and the public sector tend to be much stricter than a smaller business.

My company takes the view that as long as it doesn't interfere with work, then they are free to use it. We monitor it just to make sure people aren't viewing inappropriate material.

darlodge

Same as Ozzy,

We block inappropriate material and then allow most other things. However it is on the understanding that we can monitor everything and if it effects your workload, your are in trouble

Darren