Websense is blocking Free Republic (vanity)

8-19-2007 | n/a

[The_Victor]

Reason: The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

URL: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse

[The_Victor]

Websense isn't blocking any of the specific threads, just f-news/browse. I don't curently have time to contact Websense, so I was hoping to get some help here to get this obvious error corrected.

[TChris]

Just report it to them. It’s probably an automated thing. I’d guess they’ll remove FR from that list.

[Turbo Pig]

I had to have our Websense guru put FR into the exclusion list.

[gondramB]

My read of the websense page suggests they will only take complaints from businesses - either businesses who purchase their services or businesses being hurt by an incorrect categorization.

So i think it will take either Free Republic or your employer. You might ping John Robinson - I think he deals with all the technical stuff.

We can all help though. When we link to pictures, re-host them first on photobucket or a similar site instead of just linking to any site that turns up in a google search.

[Steve_Seattle]

Last week I tried to link from an FR thread to the website of a global warming critic, but I got a message from Websense - I think it was - saying that the connection couldn’t be made. Is Websense trying to somehow stifle conservative web activity?

[Steve_Seattle]

What exactly is Websense?

[shempy]

I am getting the same thing from websense. I had to take a backdoor route in. Of course, DU and KOS are not only unblocked, they don’t even take up my quota time.

[john316]

Just did a site lookup on websense and freerepublic.com is catagorized as “News and Media”...Looks like your problem is with your admin not the product.

[Lazamataz]

I'm responsible.

I'm too sexy.

[RepublitarianRoger]

It’s a web filter used by many corporations. It categorizes harmful or workplace-prohibited websites under “Sex,” or “Spyware,” and so on, and blocks access to those sites.

[VOA]

bump

[Steve_Seattle]

I was surprised it blocked the particular site that it blocked, and none other, so far. It was simply a website belonging to a global warming critic.

[The_Victor]

Web filtering service for businesses.

http://www.websense.com/global/en/

[oldteen]

“I’m responsible.
I’m too sexy.”

And toooo funny!!

[michigander]

I had to take a backdoor route in.

No wonder they blocked it. :-)

[The_Victor]

ping

[The_Victor]

I love you, man.

[Corin Stormhands]

I was just about to post a smart-@$$ comment blaming you.

[gondramB]

>>Last week I tried to link from an FR thread to the website of a global warming critic, but I got a message from Websense - I think it was - saying that the connection couldn’t be made. Is Websense trying to somehow stifle conservative web activity?<<

More likely

1. People incorrectly reported Freep
or
2. Freepers linked to pictures from sex related sites.

[VRWCmember]

I sometimes get the same thing at home from my Symantec firewall, where it sees the topic of “Crime” in the topics lists and blocks the f-news/browse thread. This typically happens if I login and there are no new posts to me. There are ways to circumvent it by changing which FR page you are hitting when you enter the site.