New Nokia Firewall = No GS3 at work

[Wezas]

Boooooo.

Tried the Wizard/SGE, Java, & Escape.

Boooooo.

Good friends with the lan-ops guy, maybe he can throw play.net in one of those "trusted sites" lists.

[GuildRat]

Heh, I had the same problem, friggin firewalls. I just took a spare PC in and hooked into a spare phone line ::snicker::

[Adhara]

What kind of work do you all do that lets you be paid all day to play GS?

I don't mean just the two of you. This is a general question I have been asking myself for a long time. A lot of the daytime players are playing from work. I wonder if it doesn't mean there is a serious problem in the workplace. For having worked in various office positions, I can say I was generally appalled by the degree of inefficiency and lack of productivity. Most of the time it was caused by people surfing on the net when they should have been working. Firewalls were put in place and anyone caught would be given a written warning. On the second offense, immediate firing.

Are american companies not taking similar measures? In the land of Productiviy I would expect nothing less. And what about moral issues? For those of you playing from work, do you feel any guilt at being paid by your employer for playing GS? Do you blame the employer for giving you too little work?

I'm just baffled and very surprised that so many GS players can play from work. There is not a single person I know among my friends and family that could do this without taking extremely sneaky measures like carrying a laptop.

[Latrinsorm]

Ahem.

American workers are THE MOST PRODUCTIVE in the world. Thank you.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by Adhara
What kind of work do you all do that lets you be paid all day to play GS?

::blah blah blah minirant blah blah blah::

Programmer. I don't play it all day long, but I hop in now and then. We used to have a nasty firewall that blocked everything (porn sites, hacker sites, game sites, etc.) but we got rid of it and people were able to access everything. This new firewall seems to allow all the html sites to go through (as well as instant messaging) but doesn't allow any calls out to games/servers (or return calls).

I work. I get the project done ahead of schedule. I don't smoke, so you could almost consider my quick GS3 logins as a needed break.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by GuildRat
Heh, I had the same problem, friggin firewalls. I just took a spare PC in and hooked into a spare phone line ::snicker::

Too bad we have those fancy phones here, the kind with a bazillion wires in them. I'm looking up some proxy tools now, but so far it doesn't look good. Not much info about these Nokia firewalls.

[GuildRat]

Hate to tell ya bro, proxies ain't goona work, that firewall blocks any "unauthorized" packets from getting in. And since you STILL have to recieve to your computer, that firewall's gonna blockade anything coming in from your proxie that ain't kosher to it.

The only way to get around the firewall is for it to accept "incoming" from your proxy, which your administrator, if he's worth his salt, has made sure it won't(if not, a hacker may be your solution if you're that desparate).

Last ditch?...Buy your administrator a case of beer and get him bombed after work and talk him into letting your company server connect to, and receive packets from play.net's server.

Disclaimer: This is just what I got from talking to MY administrator and trying to go through a proxy myself.

And those phone lines...probably digital and should still work with your modem. I know ours do.

[GuildRat]

And what about moral issues? For those of you playing from work, do you feel any guilt at being paid by your employer for playing GS? Do you blame the employer for giving you too little work?
- Adhara

I'm not paid to be a Jack-of All-Trades, I'm paid to be a Master-of-One, that's how I get away with playing at work. As far as guilt goes? Pshhaw! Why should I feel guilty? I do my job, I do it extremely well, and I do it under circumstances that would make most people whimper, whine and walk away.

[GS4Gurl]

I've always wondered about that too Adhara. How people can play a game from work but now that I think about it people should do what they want on their breaks. Some people go smoke why can't some people play a game on the computer that they're at. Sounds fair to me.

[Adhara]

Oh I totally agree about breaks. I should have been more specific. The people I refer to are those that play for many hours during a work day. There are many.

I don't care what kind of job you do, there is always something else that can be done. If everything is up to date, then time to be proactive and help a colleague or start working on a project to improve something in the job you do. It might even get you a promotion.

Are there jobs where there really is nothing you can do? Oh for sure. A fireman without fire doesn't have much to do for example. Are they the majority of those daytime players that claim to be playing during work hours? I would have a hard time accepting that. Office work is the vast majority and office work means you can have as much work as you want to.

It's up to the management to make sure everyone is working while being paid to work but I'm sure many of those gamers are also management types. I am just shocked. Even if I had a job that let me play during work, my conscience would stop me.

[GuildRat]

So you advocate of busy-work? "Look my workers are busy, aren't I a good manager?" That's a crock and a morale killer in any work inviroment.

I find that so bullshit, and having spent 13 years in the military I know bullshit, busy work when I see it.

I get time to play at work because I'm a little like a fireman, my job is important, yet it's not constantly pulling at me. When there's work, I'm the first one there and the last one to leave. When there's not work to be done, we chill and do what we want as long as it's not causing any trouble.

My days last anywhere between 10 and 18 hours. That's without the overtime that you get.

Hop off the high horse, drink a beer on your way down from your ivory tower to join the little people and don't hate the player, hate the game.

As far as promotions go? I've gone as far as I can in my field/line of work until a management retires or dies.

Poor career selection on your part does not cause any guild to befelt on my part.

[Soulpieced]

97 posts in 2 days. Ferocious.

[GuildRat]

lil ol me?

[imported_Kranar]

What I did was make my own proxy that connects to my home computer. My home computer then connects to Simutronics, and relays all input/output to my computer.

So you just configure the WizardFE to connect to your home computer, the first line of text you enter is the keycode, then your home computer connects to Gemstone, and that's that.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by GuildRat
Hate to tell ya bro, proxies ain't goona work, that firewall blocks any "unauthorized" packets from getting in. And since you STILL have to recieve to your computer, that firewall's gonna blockade anything coming in from your proxie that ain't kosher to it.

The only way to get around the firewall is for it to accept "incoming" from your proxy, which your administrator, if he's worth his salt, has made sure it won't(if not, a hacker may be your solution if you're that desparate).

Last ditch?...Buy your administrator a case of beer and get him bombed after work and talk him into letting your company server connect to, and receive packets from play.net's server.

Disclaimer: This is just what I got from talking to MY administrator and trying to go through a proxy myself.

And those phone lines...probably digital and should still work with your modem. I know ours do.

Yeah, I talked with the lan-ops guy (he's very cool and a good friend). He said he has no way of changing it, it's controlled by our main office (in San Diego). He was trying to play Yahoo Chess and had no luck as well. Guess I'll just be posting here more. You lucky, lucky people.

[GuildRat]

Sorry Dawg,

But I was hoping that he was your main-office tech junkie.

Those phone lines should still work if you can smuggle in a PC or laptop.

[Latrinsorm]

Reminds me of a Dave Berry crack about how government folks were smuggling out valuable things from their offices, which is why we went to a defecit, or something, the important exchange was this:

Guard: Is that a smokestack sticking out of your jacket?

Thief: ....No.

Guard: Alright then.

p.s. why does hitting <shift+ins> suddenly produce my last post?

[GuildRat]

So you just configure the WizardFE to connect to your home computer, the first line of text you enter is the keycode, then your home computer connects to Gemstone, and that's that. -Kranar


I'm not even going to pretend to understand what you said or did. But I am curious.

My understanding of a firewall is to filter incoming packets and block off certain ranges of IP addresses. I pinged play.net from work and had a timed out result, pinged a couple of sites that I knew I could get to, and had result times from the sites.

I guess question is: How did you circumvent the firewall or get it to allow a connection to your home computer/proxy, and in return, accept the packets from your proxy? Unless your proxy is set up as an approved source of information by your firewall?

In layman's terms, please.:?:

[Wezas]

Proxy won't work, this firewall stops certain packets from coming/going. I thought someone had mentioned a VPN (but now I don't see that post). I may need to see how difficult it would be to set up a VPN to my house, and then use that connection to connect to GS3. Though I'm not sure with the firewall here if it'll let me connect to the VPN.

[AnticorRifling]

Originally posted by Kranar
What I did was make my own proxy that connects to my home computer. My home computer then connects to Simutronics, and relays all input/output to my computer.

So you just configure the WizardFE to connect to your home computer, the first line of text you enter is the keycode, then your home computer connects to Gemstone, and that's that.

Show me how.

[Weedmage Princess]

Kranar we got to try that next time I'm at work.

And Adhara, I'm not a fireman...but I have a job similar in the sense that I have to "monitor" whats going on and be there if and when something happens. If there's nothing to do (which there usually isn't when I'm on the overnight shift)...you go to sleep. So actually...playing Gemstone would make me a better employee cause I'd be up all night, not asleep when that call came in

(I know, I'm reaching there..but hey! Gotta try!)

[Edited on 11-7-2003 by Weedmage Princess]

[Wezas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3247595.stm

Study about how playing games while at work helps job attitude and a general better feeling about your job.

[Caiylania]

I worked night shift at a hotel doing their auditing so I was up all night, though to my regret I hadn't yet found Gemstone so I read all night. Have quite the library now. I got everything done three hours into my shift so I had 5 to do nothing. I even cleaned when I got bored. But I had a job where I couldn't do anyone elses, unless someone showed up at 0'dark thirty to check in.

If I had known of GS then........

I do agree though that people who have things to do, and aren't on approved breaks should be working, but thats for their boss to deal with. I looked at reading during that time my reward for getting my job done (and without mistakes) in half the time as others. They even eventually had me write the manual.

But now I'm just a stay-at-home Mom who can play when ever baby doesn't want her around or is napping. Happy me!

(don't mention house work, puts a damper on my day)

[Wezas]

Awwwwwwwwww yeah. Set up a VPN at my house (cable modem) and connect to it when I'm at work. Now the firewall isn't an issue at all, muhahahahahaha!

GS3 playing +100%
Productivity - 100%

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by Wezas
GS3 playing +100%
Productivity - 100%

No GS3 at work +100% of No GS3 at work..... tsk tsk...

I could make a crack about productivity, but I'll just ask what'd you have to kill Rarr for? Cmon, she's alright.

[Wezas]

MMmmm, just found a wireless network two floors down from me with no login security. Goodbye Firewall.

Wonder if I can access any of their drives.....

[Drew2]

You'd have to know the name of their workgroup for that. Unless you're a good hacker.


They'd also have to have their drives shared.

[Edited on 1-28-2004 by Tayre]

[Wezas]

Originally posted by Tayre
You'd have to know the name of their workgroup for that. Unless you're a good hacker.


They'd also have to have their drives shared.

[Edited on 1-28-2004 by Tayre]

I've managed to decode the cryptic name of their workgroup to:

"workgroup"

Amusing, though they did have enough sense to ask for login/password to access the drives.

[TheEschaton]

When I used to do social work, I would sit in an office for 8 hours, and if I had appointments, I had appointments. If no one needed anything (which was rare, but it happened I'd say for about 7 hours out of 40 in any given week), I can do whatever the hell I wanted. Sure, there's lots of paperwork, but that was so meaningless it could be done WHILE hunting....just circling things, etc, documenting abnormalities, etc. It could even be done at home.

And, working for a not-for-profit, I was lucky I had a computer. Our "Director of Technology" hadn't had any computer experience formally (other than he owned/used one) before this job. I'd've been surprised if they knew what a firewall was.

Needless to say, I played GS a lot those days, at work.

[edited to say "8 hours", not "8 days"]

-TheEschaton-

[Edited on 1-28-2004 by TheEschaton]