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Y Combinator is prohibited

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#12

Post by ahpeeyem »

Big companies often use an off the shelf content filtering setup whose support contract includes blocked site lists with regular updates. I used to work for a bank that used one called SurfControl (who apparently have been acquired by WebSense: http://www.websense.com/site/scwelcome/index.html).

So every now and then at work I would return to a site I'd been visiting regularly and it would be blocked after a new URL database update had come through. Sometimes it would eventually be unblocked again some time after that.

Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#13

Post by ntoll »

I got bitten by this when I worked at an Investment Bank in London. It made me realise how much I valued my freedom to choose what and where I browse. Sad really, as IT staff in big mega-corps could probably do with an injection of entrepreneurial spirit.

Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#16

Post by eru »

trickjarrett wrote: post #3

I expect it was the use of 'Hacker' in the page content and meta tags.

I had a similar experience at the company where I write my Diplomarbeit (thesis). My Ubuntu could not update libpcsclite1, because the proxy did not allow to fetch the package. Playing a bit with the URL a bit revealed that libpcsclite1 includes 'clit'. I had to fire up tor to get around that prude proxy.

[I was able to install Ubuntu in the first place, because I work at a department that does software development for rolling stock scheduling optimization. We are nearly the only ones in the company with computer that are not locked up.]

Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#17

Post by Brushfire »

ntoll wrote: post #13

I got bitten by this when I worked at an Investment Bank in London. It made me realise how much I valued my freedom to choose what and where I browse. Sad really, as IT staff in big mega-corps could probably do with an injection of entrepreneurial spirit.

Its likely an automated/keyword filter, or a list they bought from someone else.

Turning off all filtering invites phishing, spyware, malware into your network, so thats not a great solution. My bet is that 9 times out of 10, if you email IT and they check it out, they can get it whitelisted.

Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#18

Post by creynolds »

bvttf wrote: post #9
trickjarrett wrote: post #3

I expect it was the use of 'Hacker' in the page content and meta tags.

That's what happened here, it was even blocked as category: hacking. Only lasted about a week, though. Comforting in a way that they had a human check.

Same thing happened at my work as well. Didn't last long.

Re: Y Combinator is prohibited

#19

Post by chacha102 »

ahpeeyem wrote: post #12

Big companies often use an off the shelf content filtering setup whose support contract includes blocked site lists with regular updates. I used to work for a bank that used one called SurfControl (who apparently have been acquired by WebSense: http://www.websense.com/site/scwelcome/index.html ). So every now and then at work I would return to a site I'd been visiting regularly and it would be blocked after a new URL…

My School has blockers unfourtunately. Blocked me from reading a government website about suicide for an english report.
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