Google Blocked??

[karinka13]

That's right, my school has decided to block Google all next week. Why? It has something to do with using databases and "tech awareness week".

Goodness.

Well, I don't know about all of you, but I'm kinda a google addict. Anyone know any loopholes?

[Tristan Lall]

Try the foreign Google mirror sites here.

[Pat McCarthy]

Whenever I can't get to Google, I just go to www.google.ca It's the Canadian version! Yay for english! I just wish that they used 'eh' at the end of a few sentences somewhere.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by karinka13

That's right, my school has decided to block Google all next week. Why? It has something to do with using databases and "tech awareness week".

Goodness.

Well, I don't know about all of you, but I'm kinda a google addict. Anyone know any loopholes?

How did that spotlight go?

Originally Posted by dlavery

Lawyers find loopholes. Engineers find solutions. For which would you rather be known?

Besides, databases aren't that bad...

[Tytus Gerrish]

schools block all sorts of important stuff, For three years of high school Chief Delphi was blocked in my school district. I always just tunneled around the firewall through an open port.

[artdutra04]

Instead of using www.google.com, use the actual IP address of their website:

http://72.14.207.99/

It works exactly the same as Google does for Internet searches, and most school proxies won't block that. At least the one at my high school doesn't. You cannot do image searches, but that's not the end of the world.

EDIT: You can do a Google Image Search. It is possible to do a image search without needing to go to images.google.com/ or images.72.14.207.99/. See this example.

Why a school might block Google is beyond me. I wouldn't suggest trying to force ways around the school proxies though, especially ones that tread on shaky legal ground.

Originally Posted by Tytus Gerrish

schools block all sorts of important stuff, For three years of high school Chief Delphi was blocked in my school district. I always just tunneled around the firewall through an open port.

Why not ask the school to take ChiefDelphi off of Internet blocking list? CD used to be blocked at out school, but we approached the IT department, explained all about ChiefDelphi and how it was basically educational, and then they took it off the blocking list. It's really that simple.

[sanddrag]

Why on earth would you block Google search? That's pointless. Now for google images, there is a valid reason to block that.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Instead of using www.google.com, use the actual IP address of their website:

http://72.14.207.99/

It works exactly the same as Google does for Internet searches, and most school proxies won't block that. At least the one at my high school doesn't. You cannot do image searches, but that's not the end of the world.

ummm.... how did you get their IP address ?? Or of any other site for that matter??

To stay on topic, my school blocked yahoo games at games.yahoo.com, but play.yahoo.com still works .

[JoeXIII'007]

Hmmm... if nothing of the above things work, try
elgoog .srdawkcab gnihtyreve lleps ot evah thgim uoY

Otherwise, ask.com usually is usually an excellent alternative.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by karinka13

Anyone know any loopholes?

I don't recommend violating school computer use policy in any way or trying to find "loopholes" in the system, but a useful tool is http://anonymouse.org that will sometimes let you get to sites you couldn't otherwise get to.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

ummm.... how did you get their IP address ?? Or of any other site for that matter??

To stay on topic, my school blocked yahoo games at games.yahoo.com, but play.yahoo.com still works .

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping

Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
			[-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
			[-w timeout] target_name

Options:
    -t			 Ping the specified host until stopped.
				   To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
				   To stop - type Control-C.
	-a			 Resolve addresses to hostnames.
	-n count	   Number of echo requests to send.
	-l size		Send buffer size.
	-f			 Set Don't Fragment flag in packet.
	-i TTL		 Time To Live.
	-v TOS		 Type Of Service.
	-r count	   Record route for count hops.
	-s count	   Timestamp for count hops.
	-j host-list   Loose source route along host-list.
	-k host-list   Strict source route along host-list.
	-w timeout	 Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.


C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping google.com

Pinging google.com [64.233.187.99] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=241
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=241
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=241
Reply from 64.233.187.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=241

Ping statistics for 64.233.187.99:
	Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
	Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 31ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>

Emphasis my own.

[JulieB]

That CRAZY to block Google my teachers could not get through the day without GOOGLE. DUDE that messed up.

[Ryan M.]

Um... it's only a week. Deal with it. Databases can be nice once you use them some.

But failing that: (This technique is not supported by rule followers anywhere, so if you get in trouble...)

1. Download a VNC server to your home computer. I suggest http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net
2. Install. Make sure you set a password. (Right click on the icon in the system tray.)
3. Get a screen shot from a school computer's desktop and take it home.
4. Put that as your background. If you have icons on your desktop, turn off auto arrange and move them to line up with the screen shot's icons.
5. Put the vnc viewer (in the dir where you installed the server) onto a thumb drive or floppy.
6. Use it to login to your computer (look up your ip/get a domain from dyndns.org before you leave) from school.
7. Surf as normal.

If it's in full screen mode, no one will ever know...

[Conor Ryan]

I do believe that using the mirrors should count as tech awarness, your not using the easiest way of doing things so it should be a loophole.

Forget the databases, use Wikipedia I've used both and wiki's got better answers.

[MikeDubreuil]

Schools spend a lot of money buying access to these on line databases. It's no surprise that they want you to use them. At first I thought databases were lame too. Then I tried Lexis Nexis, with that database you can look up an article in almost any newspaper in the country. Most newspaper websites will charge you money to read old issues.

Basically your school wants you to see the benefit of databases and they're blocking Google for a week to force you to realize how beneficial databases can be.