Hospitals Internet gun site blockers

[mglindo]

I was visiting family in Louisiana recently and I went to the public library to use the internet on my personal laptop. I tried to look up some guns on the manufacturers websites and was blocked. When I asked the librarian in charge why the blocking. She told me that it was because the state accepted Federal moneys to make the internet more accessible to the general public. The state had to agree to the rules set by the Federal Government agency giving them the money and that included blocking "weapons" web sites. By the way, You Tube was also blocked but I believe that was due to bandwidth more than anything else.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

It's not a hospital but where I work all internet discussion forums are blocked, most anyhow. Youtube is blocked, absolutely anything doing with weapons is blocked.

I just figure IT is left wing sheeple and use my company provided smart phone (when I get a break) as a work around.

 

[langloisandy]

Happens alot, some companies too, Panera does the same thing...it maybe free, but you cannot look up gun stuff!

Andy

 

[wolfe]

I run the IT department at my company and "weapons" is a generic category for blocking, pretty standard. Websense is also running by our ISP and blocks what my filter does not. Nw I can find all kinds f weapon related info on Wikipedia because the site s not registered with a stars associated with "weapons" or "guns". My guess would be only the hospital IT guy is aware f the policy and no one else could explain t.

Now like someone said earlier, weapons sights are god source of malware and that is why I keep that filter checked. Besides if I had access to gun sites at work I'd never get anything done.

 

[Old Fuff]

If you are in an area covered by the Sprint/Nextel cellular telephone network I have a solution to WiFi site blocks.

Go to: www.virginmobileusa.com

Virgin Mobile offer a no-contract/prepaid Broadband2go service that uses an external USB modum. With it you can connect to the Internet through Sprint. WiFi is not involved, and you have a much more secure connection then most public sites. Whatever the public sites (or maybe your place of employment) happen to block are no longer a concern.

The modem costs about $30.00 up, and is a one-time purchase. Monthly plans run $30 to $50.00, and you can drop it anytime you want.

You may be able to get the same service through others, such as Verizon Wireless, but apparently at higher cost.

 

[jeepnik]

Where I work we pickup a large percentage of virus and malware from gun websites. The sites are allowed but they cause problems for our IT types.

If your business doesnt have a market in firearms then blocking those sites could be in the employer's best interest.

If you're picking up "a large percentage" of you virus' and malware, for anywhere, your IT folks aren't doing their job very well. It is a constant battle, I agree, but a dedicated IT team can seriously reduce these types of incursions. The bigest problem I've seen, and it goes for by regular folks and IT folks is that they don't keep the firewalls and anti-malware software up to date.

Any system can be attacked, but most of the attacks are easy to fend off. A target specific attack, done by someone who knows what they're doing can always create havoc. But those types of attack are fairly rare.

It irritates me when folks blame they're own lack of attention on a group (yes some types do seem to have more malware associated with them) of websites, rather than take the necessary steps to prevent problems.

 

[happygeek]

Most content filtering systems provide basic templates for how strict they want the filtering to be. For example, there might be a template named "High" that would block anything that's not work related, one named "Medium" for anything that might be deemed offensive (which may include guns), and one that is "Low" which might block only malware, porn, and warez sites.
In many cases a lazy administrator has set up the content filtering and hasn't delved deeper to disable filtering for things that aren't actually offensive, like guns

+1

I can't believe it took till post #29 for someone to mention Websense. I'd bet the hospital the OP was at was running Websense with the default filter enabled. Websense will block THR, either because it's 'weapons' or it's a 'forum'. Everyone's blaming the hospital for having some agenda when more than likely you should be blaming Websense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websense).

Heck the Army has run Websense with the default filter enabled, which disallows visiting www.classicfirearms.com for example because it's a 'weapons' site (back when it was classicarms.us it was allowed, go figure). Aimsurplus is allowed, so is j&gsales.com and wideners.com. Forums with the word "forum" in the URL tend to get Websensed, forums with innocent sounding names sneak by. Large public forums like THR tend to get blocked, small private forums that don't put "forum" in their URL aren't.

If you want to complain you could ask the hospital to make an exception for THR, which probably takes a signed memo by a higher up boss, or you could write nastigrams to the Wensense company.

 

[CDW4ME]

Without access to gun related websites & forums the internet is not as useful.

 

[akodo]

You guys need to study internet security a bit more before you say the "hospital blocked me". In 9/10 cases WEAPON sites are lumped in with PORN sites and FREEWARE/SOFTWARE sites... Its a general blockage of ALL things that are considered a threat to their network security.

You can't block all sites nor can you allow some and block others (within reason).

Go to any place of business that uses a popular brand of filtering and you will get the same result. While my company blocks MOST weapons sites, for some reason THR is not on the list. We also block CNET though, because its a FREEWARE/SOFTWARE site.

I agree that gun websites are lumped in with porn websites by most internet security programs, so it isn't like the hospital is specifically targeting gun content.

Still, what is the logic behind lumping gun websites with porn and free software websites? Porn and free software sites have been established as good places to pick up viruses. Have gun sites also been found to be the same? I'd guess not. I'd guess gun websites just aren't PC and are blocked accordingly, not because they pose any threat to network security, or at least any more threat than a knitting website

 

[enjine]

I'm in a hospital right now. No issues w access via wifi

 

[Lockheed]

Most companies either pay for a filtering service application like WebSense or purchase static lists of websites with content labels and apply their own filtering. Suffice to say, the majority of the Internet is catolouged and categorized. I am a computer systems engineer by trade so I have some experience in this.

As strongly as I support gun rights I also support property rights and the hospital is within its rights to restrict access on its network any way it chooses, including what content from the Internet it allows on its network. I don't agree with the filtering but support it 100%.

 

[Ignition Override]

Some hotel business center computers block any gun website, unless you simply read about them on Wikipedia. Many of us don't want to bother with the extra weight of bringing/risk of damaging/forgetting a laptop, just to have normal Internet access.

The downtown Hol. Inn in Sioux Falls, SD blocked all actual sites, about three years ago.
The downtown Doubletree in Little Rock did so, but a few months ago allowed many gun sites to get through.
The small two-story hotel in downtown Grand Forks ND blocked all of them, about two years ago, my last visit.

The message on these computers always seems to say, in black and red: "Warning! Minors (or Youth) ***German Militaria", or "...weapons" etc.

 

[wankerjake]

I work in 2 hospitals. The filter is different for both. One allows THR but blocks Thefiringline, the other allows Thefiringline and blocks THR. They both allow 24hrcampfire.com and predatormasters.com. There are some other differences, not just with firearm related websites. Tags like "social media" also get blocked... usually. I get youtube at one of them.

I think the main point is to keep employees from surfing the web...

 

[archigos]

[size=+2]Workarounds[/size]
For those who frequently encounter this, here are a few ways to get around such filtering:

• VPN (Most Effective)
  The best option is to use a VPN and tunnel all traffic through the VPN. This will get you through all web filtering, period. The only way to prevent somebody from doing this is to prevent VPN connections, which most public wifi networks will not do because VPN is a requirement for most business users. If your company offers a VPN, you could use this, but recognize that your company will be able to see what you're doing as your traffic will go through their network. If you are at all technical, you can easily set up a PPTP VPN service on your home router if it will run DD-WRT.
• Custom DNS Servers
  Set your own DNS servers. Much filtering is done by the DNS servers, which unless you set them specifically, are chosen by the network you connect to. There are instructions for doing so readily available for pretty much any operating system, including Windows and Mac OS X. Select a DNS server (there's a list of freely available ones here). I'd suggest perhaps the Level3 or Google servers, as some of the others can actually be used for filtering services. Note that some networks will prohibit you from using these (though it won't be plainly visible that its blocking the custom DNS server), so if you still are blocked from gun-related websites, try the next option.
• DNSCrypt
  OpenDNS offers a program called DNSCrypt which can be used to stop networks from blocking custom DNS - in fact, it will automatically configure custom DNS for you. Just remember to check the "DNSCrypt over TCP/443" option. The only caveat here is that OpenDNS also offers a filtering service - if the filtering service that the network uses happens to be OpenDNS, this will not get you around the blocking.

I hope this helps a few users. Let me know if I can clarify anything!

 

[wankerjake]

To be honest, I was far more concerned with the birth of my children than a stupid internet forum when I was at the hospital with my wife. She would have ripped my trigger finger off if I'd been chatting online about guns instead of tending to my family. Something to think about.

Most medical people are virulently opposed to violence, period. They would view an estranged husband who broke into his wife's home with a baseball bat as the "victim" if the wife shot him. Their blockage of any web site having to do with weapons or what they regard as violence accurately reflects their worldview.

That's a real nice lay theory you have there. Who is "they?" The hospital?

 

[coolluke01]

^^^^ I do agree. I was responsible and since we were there for 3 days there was a good deal of time where she and baby were sleeping where I was off the hook. lol

 

[wankerjake]

Hey, as long as you still have your trigger finger, you'll be ok

 

[downingducksdowneast]

Well this is interesting....I actually am the guy that manages the web filter at our healthcare system. We have two filtering policies, one for employees and one for our Free Wifi. Both policies (groups of sites or categories of sites applied to a group of users) were created and approved by HR and applied to our internet filter by me. They both block things like Porn, Violence, etc. Logic is that if a employee, patient or guest is surfing the web and someone walks in or in the same waiting room could get offended if that person was looking at guns (right or wrong).

Neec0 hits the nail on the head pretty much, we're providing a service, to use it you need to abide by our rules.

There are many sites and categories that sites like THR get lumped into and blocked to protect the computers and users from causing a system issue that might impact patient care. Can you imagine if a computer went down or sent someones medical record to china because some malware got on it due to a site that someone went to...this is why we BLOCK alot of the internet. And as far as employees go..Get back to work!

You guys need to study internet security a bit more before you say the "hospital blocked me". In 9/10 cases WEAPON sites are lumped in with PORN sites and FREEWARE/SOFTWARE sites... Its a general blockage of ALL things that are considered a threat to their network security.

You can't block all sites nor can you allow some and block others (within reason).

Go to any place of business that uses a popular brand of filtering and you will get the same result. While my company blocks MOST weapons sites, for some reason THR is not on the list. We also block CNET though, because its a FREEWARE/SOFTWARE site.

 

[mr.scott]

As stated, "weapons" category is pretty common. It's not some conspiracy to undermined the 2nd amendment. It's to stop people from screwing around on the internet at work.

 

[josephbw]

Last fall I was in a hospital in Richmond IN. I had a private room in the heart section of the hospital. In my room was a computer suspended from the ceiling that I was told I could use as I wished. I was able to log onto another gun forum and conduct a discussion about healthcare. This happened while the nursing staff was coming and going. I fact one male nurse Harry, saw what I was doing and we had a conversation about hunting.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Neec0 hits the nail on the head pretty much, we're providing a service, to use it you need to abide by our rules.

Reminds me of folks complaining about free water not being cold enough in the summer.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Public Schools have gotton so bad that you have to fill out a form from the Tech dept so the kids can research weapons of the American Revolution , CW or WW2. Hospitals are Gun free in TX for the most part. I just told them if I get harmed on your property be ready to be served my Lawyer.

 

[archigos]

Back when I was in high school (private school actually) they blocked words from websites. Researching anything about the bad parts of history was always entertaining... trying to interpret a website with the words "Hitler", "bomb", and "Nazi" stripped out of them...

 

[benEzra]

I can tell you that Children's Hospital Boston and Duke Children's Hospital do not block THR or gunblogs on the guest network, and I have spent quite a lot of time surfing THR from both locations over the years.

 

[mdauben]

To be honest, I was far more concerned with the birth of my children than a stupid internet forum when I was at the hospital with my wife. She would have ripped my trigger finger off if I'd been chatting online about guns instead of tending to my family. Something to think about.

This is certainly true in many cases. However, as someone who once spent 8 hours one night in a hospital emergency room waiting area to be seen, having that access to the internet really helped keep my mind of the broken shoulder that brought me there.

Reminds me of folks complaining about free water not being cold enough in the summer.

If you think "free" internet is actually free, you are deluding yourself.

Whether its at a hospital, hotel or McDonnalds you are most certainly paying for it, although the costs are most likely hidden in the charges for non-releated things like medical care, a room, or a Big Mac.