Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Websense update

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Websense update - I'm not banned anymore!

Posted 2006-07-31 12:33 PM in Musings.

A number of readers have emailed recently saying that the oppressive regime that is their IT department had banned this blog via their Websense tool because it was categorized as "Personal Web Sites; Society and Lifestyles."

I'm pleased to announce:

Thank you for writing to Websense.

The site you submitted has been reviewed. We have made an update to the following URL in our master database to address this issue:

http://hanselman.com/blog/ - Information Technology

Categorization updates should be available in the next scheduled publication of the database. A new database is published every business day, five days a week, Pacific Standard Time. You should notice any updates referred to in this message within 72 hours.

Thank you for your assistance,

The Websense Database Services Staff

Yay! Welcome folks from behind the wall.

Tracked by:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheImportanceOfP3PAndACompactPrivacyPolicy.aspx [Pingback]

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 9:46:34 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Interesting.. We use Websense and your site is not blocked and we have strict rules. Many 'technical' blogs are blocked. Even groups.google.com is blocked! unless you have a business need. (I work for a major financial institution)

Abdu

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 10:47:18 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Since I'm one of the several who emailed you, I'll chime in...

Our organization uses SurfControl (http://www.surfcontrol.com/). It wasn't that hanselman.com or hanselminutes.com was blocked, it's that perseus.franklins.net was categorized as "peer-to-peer" and was blocking all requests, even HTTP. That's interesting to me since perseus is just a web server - Carl's torrent tracker is actually torrent.pwop.com.

So it wasn't just Hanselminutes that was the problem, it was all of Carl's content (DNR, DNRTV, Mondays), too. That said, I'm about the only person in my organization who is hardcore enough to listen to Hanselminutes and DNR religiously. Since I download my podcasts at home to listen to in the car, I never noticed they were blocked at work until I asked my teammates to listen to the Scrum episode.

So, long story short, SurfControl has labeled Carl's media server as a peer-to-peer server and should probably be contacted, too.