My School Has Really Cracked Down On Websites This Year

[Lunarhawk]

This is my 3rd year here and for the first 2, of course, obvious sites were blocked. For awhile in the 2nd my main site was unblocked but it was blocked again later that year after I was suspected for "terrorist activities" (No lie, they looked through all my files, where I'd been, etc during that time. Cause me a lot of unneeded crap) but still most of the sites I'd used to pass time (Didn't really browse them anywhere else) were unblocked. But now this year I come in to find nearly all of them blocked =/ Which sucks because I really have nothing else to do now at lunch due to a lack of social life. So yeah, it sucks =[
For example one of the sites though would be the xbox.com forums which for some reason were not blocked the last 2 years (though the xbox.com site itself was) and other various forums where the main site was blocked. I guess I'm just lucky that this site remains unblocked, but who knows how long that'll last at this rate =/

[eclipsedmind]

well by aflash drive those little protable thingies and download flash games and so on there thats what i do at my school

[Lunarhawk]

I actually have a flash drive but I can't find it at the moment lolz =[ My room's a mess and it's like 1.5"x5" so yeah... and no they actually watch to make sure you're not playing games so that wouldn't work anyways

[eclipsedmind]

oh bummer you have to be secret when you play them and admit to nothin.but your school sounds just as serious on internet usage then mine

[Lunarhawk]

Yeah it's a bitch.
=/ I mean it's not too bad this first semester when I'm only on the computers for about 30 minutes a day and I can just read a book or do work or something during that time instead if nothing's going on but next semester I'll be in front of one in a class 90 minutes a day. >_< And the class is easy so I'll usually finish the days work in 30. WTF will I do?

[Murvel]

There are ways to get passed this. Although they may be in serious conflict of your schools Internet policy so I'm not going to give you any straight instructions.

Or do what I do to pass time during the lunch hour, watch some tv-shows.

[Lunarhawk]

Nowhere to watch TV.

And yeah, I've tried stuff. I used Proxys for awhile but they keep getting banned usually over the weekend after I first started using them and I've pretty much run out since most of them have the "Anonymizer" category under smartfilter (the school's filter) which is an auto block. I also was going to use some sort of bypass thing last year which would make it so I accessed the internet through my computer at home thus bypassing the filter altogether but it required forwarding a port which for some reason is impossible with the router I have.

[zeekgenateer]

Set up a proxy on your home computer. That's what I'm working on right now. I'm using a linux based proxy (squid), but you might be able to find some that run on Windows. Since usually my ip changes when I turn my router on and off, it can be dynamic every day. If you need to though you also could find some IP changing software.

If you do make your own proxy, let a friend test it so they'll bite the bullet if the school gets mad. That's what I'll do. I have a communist friend who wants to go to a bunch of blocked sites. If he gets caught and kicked from school computers I know not to try it.

UPDATE: Firewall and Router working I'm planning on setting up my proxy tomorrow after school.

[Lunarhawk]

That's basically what I was trying to do last year except you needed to forward ports and I just can't do that with this router. It sucks.

[Murvel]

Hint of the day:

Buy a new router.

[Lunarhawk]

If I'm going to the type of school that restricts internet, it should be pretty obvious that I live with my parents still. And even though I've offered to pay for it myself my dad refuses to let me get a new router for the family for no damn reason =/

[Murvel]

Aaah, the perks of parenthood.

[zeekgenateer]

You don't even have to tell him about it. If you have a linksys router, all linksys routers look the same, so.... ya you could swap it out, but you have to find a similar looking router.

[Lunarhawk]

I use a linksys hub in my room (No it's not because of the hub, I couldn't forward the ports even when I had my comp connected directly to the router) and I'll admit nearly all linksys products look a like. The only problem is this isn't linksys - I forget what type it is now but I can check later.

[Nytemare37]

A laptop fixes all! I just bring my Laptop with me to school and play Warcraft 3 till I go home

[Lunarhawk]

No laptop and even if I had one I couldn't take it to school.

[HaSh]

go

Start > Run > CMD and type in "ping www.sitename.com" copy the ip adress it gives you, and paste it in ulr bar

[Lunarhawk]

Fun fact: School uses Novell meaning the only things under the start menu are shut down, help&support, and programs (which is empty)

On a good note though I found that one of the sites I thought was blocked this year that hadn't been before (official xbox forums) apparently isn't - I just couldn't get to it the same way I did last year but now that I have and it's on my favoirtes...