why do some businesses block websites?

why do some businesses block websites?

Author
Discussion

WolfAir

Original Poster:

456 posts

134 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
I understand blocking pornography and the like, but whats the point of blocking sites like youtube? I work in security, booking in and out deliveries so there is a lot of down time where there is not much to do, not to mention nights when there is NOTHING to do apart from the odd patrol. Obviously I am talking about after all paper work and your job's needs are met, what is the problem?

Bullett

10,873 posts

183 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Bandwidth, security, risk of inappropriate material, people skiving off.

Not many jobs will have huge downtime. You are there you are working.

kowalski655

14,599 posts

142 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Bandwidth possibly,if everyone was on YouTube in the day that could slow everything else down. Won't affect you but unfair to allow you access and no one else.
Or just to get people to actually do their work. smile

megaphone

10,694 posts

250 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
I can't believe you're asking the question. Do you really think any business wants their employees spending their time 'surfing the net' and watching TV?

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
I'd just have some kind of mobile contract that gives me more bandwidth.

Mark-C

5,010 posts

204 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Lots of stuff blocked here and I don’t mind that - I’m at work after all.

PH and forums not blocked though tongue out

jesta1865

3,448 posts

208 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Mark-C said:
Lots of stuff blocked here and I don’t mind that - I’m at work after all.

PH and forums not blocked though tongue out
yes luckily ph is not blocked here, but a lot is.

simply because as you say no-one should be getting paid to watch netflix, youtube and see what facespace updates have happened.

just checked and netflix is open here, get in, oops did i say that out loud smile

ReallyReallyGood

1,620 posts

129 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Think of it the other way, why *should* a business permit access to sites such as youtube. They do not add business value.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
ReallyReallyGood said:
Think of it the other way, why *should* a business permit access to sites such as youtube. They do not add business value.
Depends on the business!

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

158 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
WolfAir said:
I understand blocking pornography and the like, but whats the point of blocking sites like youtube? I work in security, booking in and out deliveries so there is a lot of down time where there is not much to do, not to mention nights when there is NOTHING to do apart from the odd patrol. Obviously I am talking about after all paper work and your job's needs are met, what is the problem?
I'm amazed that you have to ask.


WinstonWolf

72,857 posts

238 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
ReallyReallyGood said:
Think of it the other way, why *should* a business permit access to sites such as youtube. They do not add business value.
Depends on the business!
It won't add a great deal to security staff checking stuff in and out...

jesta1865

3,448 posts

208 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
ReallyReallyGood said:
Think of it the other way, why *should* a business permit access to sites such as youtube. They do not add business value.
Depends on the business!
also there is a lot of educational stuff on youtube that can help staff do their job more efficiently.

i've watched youtube videos on how to do IT stuff as I can learn more in 10 minutes on there, than 3 hours reading a book sometimes. i learnt how to fit my new bathroom from there, it's only leaked once, and that was my fault as I never thought something through smile

i do know i said earlier in the thread that it is better blocked, but in fact here we have a policy on the filtering devices that allow you to use an id and password to get through, it then automatically lets the techs know that someone is on youtube.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
What happens when you work for YouTube? biggrin

bigandclever

13,750 posts

237 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
WolfAir said:
I understand blocking pornography and the like, but whats the point of blocking sites like youtube?
Plenty of filth on youtube, you're just looking in the wrong places wink

WolfAir

Original Poster:

456 posts

134 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
ahh bandwidth, I never thought of that. I am not saying we should all be on youtube wasting time, I am saying during down time, when you have done all your work, you have nothing else to do and still have 5 hours until you clock off. I'm just security smile I don't have much responsibility apart from making sure no nutters try to have a go.
I'm glad PH isn't blocked biggrin

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
5 hours and nothing to do...

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses#

Not saying you don't like your job, or that you are not doing something valuable. But you could do an online education course in all sorts of things that interest you with that kind of time on your hands. And get paid to do it! It's harder for them to complain about you using the company internet for training in spare hours also.

bitchstewie

50,781 posts

209 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Lots of reasons ranging from totally legitimate to totally distrusting staff to weak management seeing it as a solution rather than managing the problem.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
WolfAir said:
ahh bandwidth, I never thought of that. I am not saying we should all be on youtube wasting time, I am saying during down time, when you have done all your work, you have nothing else to do and still have 5 hours until you clock off. I'm just security smile I don't have much responsibility apart from making sure no nutters try to have a go.
I'm glad PH isn't blocked biggrin
Phone + Plex at home + 3/4G = sorted.

poing

8,743 posts

199 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
We mostly block web sites to protect people from themselves. Only last week I had someone say "Can you allow me to see this site, it's a training video so it's legitimate" On checking, it was far from legitimate because the originator had let the domain expire and it had been bought by one of those advertising sites, it had loads of links on it claiming training videos of the sort that the person wanted to watch but none of which were safe. Luckily the checker blocks these things.

In terms of youtube and other social sites, a lot of checkers can allow periods of time (quota) and also allow certain categories of video, it's what we do. I allow people 1 hour per day of youtube, Facebook etc. The quota doesn't include educational videos or reading twitter posts etc because they can all be helpful but it does block entertainment and viral video. Sales and marketing have unrestricted access to social media though as it's part of the job, security department not so much wink

ecs

1,222 posts

169 months

Monday 29th June 2015
quotequote all
Used to work somewhere that blocked loads of websites. The lights in the toilets were on a timer which meant they went off after 2mins too, hardly long enough to take a st. There was a torch on my desk when I started from the previous employee who used it, I soon learned why.

Didn't stay for long.

Also, they were so inept that they had only blocked the websites on port 80 - since all the blocked websites were available via https it was piss easy to get around. However no one had figured that one out...