Way around websense

[benji_boy]

I need a way to get around websense so i can get onto hexus in college anyboy know????
Thanks for the help
Benji Boy

[Steve]

Ask the admin to add HEXUS.net to the exception list. Otherwise, getting around it might be possible, depending on your network infrastructure. However, we wouldn't want to annoy your sysadmins now, would we?

[Moby-Dick]

Much as we appreciate you wanting to take part in the community as often as possible , we'd hate to be held responsible for getting you kicked out of college, which is what can happen for a breach of their Acceptable Usage Policy.

I'd suggest being very nice to your admin

[Twigman]

Teach me how to hack.
kthxbye.

[noTHINGface]

Google for Jap, you may be able to use this to get through your proxy.

<im not familiar with websense though>

[dolomite33]

... stumbled across this site the other day ... http://www.hidemyurl.com .... you get to test your site (i needed to get into yahoo mail) and it worked for me so i paid the $30 for a year ($2.50/month) ... you get an online account ... all web based NO software to install ... NO settings to change ... seems to be working for 95% of sites ... i have had some issues with heavy JavaScript sites but thats about it ... looks like a winner ... they also offer http://www.hidemyurl.com:900 ... websense and st bernard are only looking on port 80 ... so they block http://www.hidemyurl.com in websense or st bernard port 900 will still work ... as long as their IP is not blocked at your location it should work just fine ... i was using megaproxy.com but this is BETTER and CHEAPER

they even have a free service that is better than anything like tinyurl.com ... you can have custom link endings and EXPIRE your link ...

[Moby-Dick]

Websence sits on a proxy server. There is no way I'd be allowing it to proxy on port 900 so you'd be stumped.
Websence also has a proxy avoidance catagory , where hidemyurl would happily sit. and block it.

are you aware of the browsing activity reports that these packages generate ? using some very basic trend analysis , you'd stick out like a sore thumb. Hell hath no fury like a sysadmin who finds someone trying to buck the system.

dolomte. welcome to the forums , for your accounts sake , I hope you have a whole lot more to say that advertising sites that can get people fired.

[ik8]

Actually hidemyurl, like megaproxy.com, don't need any proxy settings to be configured on the browser. They simply let the user browse to a web site that is listening on a port other than the usual 80 and 443. Unless the filtering software intercepts and analyzes traffic on *every* single port from 1 to 65535, there is no way it will catch the users who browse to those alternate ports.

Note that the ports these sites use will change, they're not necessarily "stuck" to 900. Furthermore they both can use SSL encryption, so it will make it harder for you to track down what they're doing...

As a side note, I prefer hidemyurl... has less issues browsing to certain sites that are unavailable to megaproxy.

[Moby-Dick]

Actually hidemyurl, like megaproxy.com, don't need any proxy settings to be configured on the browser. They simply let the user browse to a web site that is listening on a port other than the usual 80 and 443. Unless the filtering software intercepts and analyzes traffic on *every* single port from 1 to 65535, there is no way it will catch the users who browse to those alternate ports.

Note that the ports these sites use will change, they're not necessarily "stuck" to 900. Furthermore they both can use SSL encryption, so it will make it harder for you to track down what they're doing...

As a side note, I prefer hidemyurl... has less issues browsing to certain sites that are unavailable to megaproxy.

Do you know how websence works ?

its a content filter that sits on an ISA proxy server.
If a company uses websence , then they proxy all their web access through one or more proxy servers.

this means that unlike your home setup , there isn't any direct external access from the browser to the web.

port 900 wont go anywhere outside the organisation as the proxy only listens to requests made on the ports it is set to listen on

but sites like megaproxy and anonymiser , triangleboy , thecloak.net have their own catagory on websence... which is almost always blocked.

even if it wasn't blocked , the reports woudl flag up the traffic to that site , which would be followed up by any good security team.

[ik8]

Yes, I actually do... It can be configured in many different ways, and depending how it's implemented in a network (ISA, Cisco PIX etc), will block access in a certain way.

If you're running it in conjunction with MS ISA server (strange, a Unix-style admin who actually uses Microsoft :-) ...) to block *all* outgoing requests, then yes, I see how neither of the sites will help. If a company is running a Gestapo-like shop and will only allow outgoing traffic on port 80 and block everything else that pretty much cuts everything off. If however from a simple command prompt you can issue
telnet hidemyurl.com 800 for hidemyurl
or
telnet www.v41.com 1755 for megaproxy

and make a connection, then it's very likely that your users will be able to browse anyways.

[Moby-Dick]

I've not seen any content filtering software that doesn't use some form of proxy. eg Dansguardian on Squid , or Surfcontrol , also on ISA , even the watchguard build in content filter is based on the fact that it proxy's http traffic.

A compy large enough to require an internet policy be enforced with websence is going to proxy traffic , not only for the control , but for the caching ability.

Specific application proxys are the only way to maintain a secure enterprise level network.

To allow clients direct outbound access is a recepie for disaster.

[Stoo]

Yup, the only way you're going to get through is if you've got a slack sysadmin - using websense, surfcontrol etc only on port 80 is a bit like trying to fill a bucket using a sieve, and tbh if it's like that, the sysadmin deserves a slap

Even the sleepy people at my place spotted my nice little ssh tunnel and blocked my home ip.. (oops )

[dolomite33]

im not sure what any of those last 4 posts meant ... but both megaproxy and hidemyurl are working for me from work ... i am blocked by websense ... and hidemyurl seems to be the better of the two ...

[Moby-Dick]

then the guys that run your network aren't doing their job properly

[Lee H]

Dansguardian

Gahhhh I hate this program. Keeps filtering out technical pages on anandtech for silly reasons and also a few other sites

[Moby-Dick]

lol - its not the brightest of content filters

and it does depend on where you get catagory files from.

oh and administering catagories is a pita on it , but it is free