[OT] Getting out from behind a corporate firewall

[Colin McGregor]

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 11:16 AM, Stephen <stephen-d-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> In June I start work on a ten month project for a company that makes network
> equipment for ISPs.
>
> I expect that they have a very tight firewall and web proxy.
>
> I want to be able to get out from it, of course.
>
> Nothing more than email and accessing photography web sites that are banned
> on most proxies.
>
> I have read about httptunnel. Is this the way to go?
>
> I will have an XP machine as client, and have a Linux server with a public
> IP at home.
>
> All thoughts welcome!

Last fall I did some contract work at one of the major banks. The bank
did NOT permit any non-bank owned hardware to connect to their
network. There was no issue bringing in your own laptop to the office,
other than security (it was strongly recommended that everyone lock
their laptop to desk). So, there were some options, there was the
likes of the Roger's Rocket Stick (hhtp://Rogers.com/RocketStick), or
the Bell Turbo Stick
(http://mobilebusiness.bell.ca/en/Common/Wireless-products/Mobile-Internet-devices_Category_56.aspx),
which some of the MS-Windows using contractors used (not sure what the
Linux support is for these devices). Being in the downtown core some
of the people in the building could use One Zone
(http://www.onezone.ca/), which meant almost any 802.11g device
supported by your OS. Then at lunch time there were the nearby coffee
shops with WiFi...

Me, I was happy enough with the contract work that while I did take a
Linux running laptop into the office, I basically just used it as
reference book, as I was writing Linux documentation, and at times I
wanted to double check command line options (even today, the man
command with its reference pages can be your friend). I also used my
laptop as an over sized MP3 player (headphones playing some soft music
to drown out office noise and let me focus on writing...). Going
without personal internet access for 9 hours/day is really not that
big a deal. I didn't want to risk messing up a good contract job...

Bottom line, if your job REQUIRES changes to the corporate firewall
rules explain that to the employer and get the exception(s) you need
to do the job at hand. If extra internet access is in the "it would be
good if...", then play nice and DON'T try to do an end-run around
their rules on their network ... unless you want this to be a SHORT
contract ...

Colin.

> Stephen
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