Net access at work

I'm looking for ways to get web access at work without it being monitored by our quite good IT team. They are quite PRO-work, so are quite strict on web policy.. even barclays bank is blocked! never mind any USEFUL sites. I imagine its only a matter of time before this site is blocked also.

Ways I know of are as follows:

1) Use a proxy
Problems with this are that they will still know I am surfing the net in work time, as it would still show on server logs.

2) Use a VPN
Not sure how I would go about doing this, or if they would be able to monitor it on the server logs.

3) Remote Desktop
I have my PC at home, which I guess I could leave on and connect via remote desktop. Problem is that people in the office would see my screen and it may stand out as looking different (home PC is Win7, work PC is XP). Also, I am paranoid of my PC catching fire as I built it rather than bought it.

4) Use my phone as wifi hotspot and buy a USB wifi dongle
This would work efficiently at hiding my access, as it would go pretty much untraceable. Problem is, my phone gets quite HOT when running it as a wifi hotspot for a while. Also, it chews at my 500MB data allowance (which goes down pretty fast if I use it all day at college 4 times a month), and drains my battery significantly.

5) Buy a mobile internet dongle on a pay monthly or pay as I go basis thing... Would probably have to install software on the PC at work which might not be great...

Any thoughts appreciated. I don't wana browse all day, I have a job to do. But I'd like to check forums and other not-blocked sites sometimes when I haven't got much on.

[Refl3x]

3 is the best way -- IT team will only see TCP3389 connections going out (rdp) and cant prove anything
make sure they have not got VNC etc on your machine to see what youve got onscreen

I am incharge of IT at my company and my view is that you can do what the hell you want, if you dont do your job its your responsibility and as long as you dont have a detrimental impact upon other users/servers/email/internet etc
but we do have an acceptable use policy i can lay the smack down on somone if i wanted to

Slightly off topic but how did you get into managing IT systems? Its something I'd love to do, I think I have most of the knowledge and ambition just lack of qualification in that area.

Also, is there any way of knowing if they have VNC on my machine? I connect to the domain on login with my user and password, we have avast scanner on the machine, the internet explorer internet connection goes through a proxy, and sometimes if the power goes down, everyones internet gets blocked and we have to phone IT with our IP address for them to unblock it..

Also, I've seen server logs before and it does log every web page every second for every user..

I don't think they have VNC access as there is no program running in the system tray or anything like that?

[Refl3x]

yep vnc tends to run in the system tray.

I went to college and did an NVQlvl2/3 in computers, then got a job doing telephone tech support, then got a job doing tech support for a guy at my gym who i found out was the MD of an IT company.
Then i spent 3 years of my life obsessively studying IT qualifications
Microsoft/cisco etc
moved into being a Network engineer, then into a seniro network engineer and onto being a consultant
then was poached by one of my clients and became their IT manager.

Well theres nothin in system tray so I'm guessin they cant see the screen. I think they're capable of remote desktoping in though.

Thats awesome, I'm working in sales but I'd love to be in IT. I do like it in sales but deep down I've always loved IT. I had the choice between my apprenticeship where I work now, doing 6th form and Uni, or going college to do IT. I chose my apprenticeship cos I'd get my degree and get paid for it. I wont rule out a career change given the option though. Can you recommend any fairly cheap courses I could do to improve my chances?

So the optimum solution would be... get a low power always on PC at home, and then remote desktop in to it whenever I wana browse some interwebs?

[daleinthedark]

DJ

if they have VNC you'll have the white icon in your corner. You'll know that they are looking at your screen if it turns to black - we have it for checking our students activities at the college where I work.

Should look like these 2 in your system tray next to your clock in XP

Nah we don't have VNC then...

I just came across a great site that goes into huge detail the process of setting up a tunnel using Putty and SSH for windows.. and it even details how to do it if my current work PC is running through a proxy (yes).

I'm guna try it tomorrow at work (bank holiday, nobody in, BONUS). If IT did ever figure it out that I was encrypting my traffic through a tunnel, I'd just say I'm security conscious and don't want my bank details on show at lunch time :P

I have previously tried to do remote desktop over the internet, but failed miserably at this. Or I think the remote desktop worked, but the Wake on LAN didnt work (bad router setup i think).

Ideally I want remote desktop when nobody is in the office (that would be awesome) and then just tunnel my web traffic when people are in office.

p.s that site is How to Bypass Most Firewall Restrictions and Access the Internet Privately

[face]

pcanywhere they may use this as well.

would have thought they would have some kind of remote access software i install it on most machines. The idea being why move when you can do it from your own pc.

[Status]

I recommend a smartphone with a data plan it's the only truly risk free option.

[Status]

Originally Posted by kowalski

Tw1sted,

How safe am I?

I connect using 3G and refuse the corporate VPN request. Then I go on the net using Firefox I downloaded into My Documents on the c:\ drive which does not sync with the network when I reconnect.

Are there ways this activity can be monitored?

I'm actually pretty careful to stay on sites that are not blocked and only really do it because the ping is about 5 times quicker without the VPN so youtube (which is not restricted, but may as well be when I'm connected through VPN) loads or so I can still use streaming sites during core business hours when they are restricted through the network to preserve bandwidth for genuine business traffic.


Peace,

kowalski

The main risk is your traffic being logged through their connection (vpn/proxy/firewall). You should be fine through your own 3g