My employer has decided to block OzBargain. This comes as a compliment to the creators of OzBargain, however makes it difficult to enjoy OzB during my lunchbreak.
Can OzBargain please create a mirror site so we can enjoy this while taking our lunch break?
@realfancyman: That really depends on what they are using for detection. many of the proxy appliances you buy nowdays do some smart classification of a lot of content and to avoid this type of workaround they simply block content which has no classification.
Also ensure you don't login when using this link unless you implicitly trust realfancyman as you would be exposing your credentials to his service.
@gromit: I'm not really aware of how this stuff works, the proxy is working on my school network so I'm happy. You're right, I could implement a way to sniff out login details, you'll just have to take my word that I'm not.
@O15: BTW, the site is protected by Cloudflare, so the best they could do for blocking is a DNS block.
Great, thanks so much! Just to confirm, we cannot login to this?
You can actually if you click on the login button instead of just hovering over it. I'm working on getting the full functionality working soon however.
As pointed out, you're happy to trust some nigerian price random dude with your login details?
And you work for a bank?
If someone decides to get on your case, all this is in the logs for HR, security & your managers to review.
It's just Ozbargain, why would his boss care?
why would his boss care?
Boss's bonus might depend on @OP pulling his finger out and answering calls, he'll care about that.
They pay him to work (customer support), not dick about on forums. Now you know why you get put on hold when you ring companies.
Companies tend not to care much so long as the work gets done, OzBargain was most likely blocked because of some blanket "No forums" policy put in place, people tend to spend too much time on them.
The real problem is when someone has a problem with @OP, then all this stuff gets dredged up and looked at - accessing a mirror of a blocked site isn't a good look. They may take "yeah, but only during lunch" into account.
@D C: I understand that point of view, I was referring to the security concerns in your former comment.
security concerns
While you're probably a top bloke and not at all a Nigerian prince, I'm not handing my password over.
People are lazy and 'leak data', I reckon we could give doxing @OP a shot.
We know @OP is at ANZ (I have many buddies there) in a support role. He (halving the number of targets) claims to be in Melbourne (ANZ HQ) but your logs can confirm that (home & work). You've also got his password, probably the same or similar to his bank one.
The work IP could narrow down the office he works shows up at (how far from home?), not that 'in support' hasn't already.
A rummage through his posts could turn up more handy info. Shame I can't ask IT for the logs…
@D C: I understand your concerns. At the end of the day, it's the end users decision how seriously they want to take their security & privacy. A person with malicious intent certainly could exploit this.
@realfancyman: hope you are also aware under privacy laws you are liable for any breaches of logs or your proxy for personal data leaks. personally The security concerns alone mean I wouldn't use it and nor should others, but for you the legal position you put yourself in by openly running this for others is also questionable, even with 100% noble intentions it may come back to bite you in the backside.
@realfancyman: good idea, proxying a login can only end in tears and even if it is never compromised and you are 120% honest you leave yourself open to being accused of stealing credentials.
@D C: Using credentials that resemble work credentials in any way would be completely insane. I frequent troyhunt.com and am well-informed with regards to data leaks, etc. and take the security of my work very seriously.
In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have posted to this forum given how much attention it has received - I was hoping for an existing, alternative way to jump online during my lunch break, check for a bargain, and then get back to work.
I reckon we could give doxing @OP a shot.
It is disappointing to see this. I have always felt a sense of camaraderie and mateship on OzB forums until now.
am well-informed with regards to data leaks, etc. and take the security of my work very seriously.
I disagree. Your first response to @realfancyman setting up a mirror was about logging in. Jeez.
At the very least you're at risk of your account being hijacked. OzBargain tries hard to keep banned users out.
It is disappointing to see this
Disappointing that it took you so long to twig that all this isn't a good idea. I couldn't be arsed to do anything like doxxing you, but you've given enough hints to make finding you easier. Logs from the mirror would be a great help.
Don't do personal crap on work PCs, and don't try to circumvent blocks. It will come up one day.
Christ, it's just a forum. What on here is so important that you need access to it at all times?
@D C: yes, you raise some good points mate. I haven't yet used any of the mirrors and in the interests of others attempting to log in with their credentials I've removed them from the post.
Don't do personal crap on work PCs, and don't try to circumvent blocks. It will come up one day.
You are right. This has been a learning experience.
@scottyheist:
I'm not your friend, @fancypantman isn't your friend, nor are the OzBargain mods, neither are your colleagues, your boss, IT, Group Security and HR are definitely unfriendly.
If someone needs dropping into the shit and it's down to us or you, we'll cheerfully sell you out for a Domino Pizza voucher without much of a second thought.
Until (if) that happens it'll be all good.
Another alternative is to go to the Google translate for web and enter source language as any random language and translate to English. Might worth a try http://itools.com/tool/google-translate-web-page-translator
Can't you just browse Facebook and play solitaire like everyone else at work?
Option A:
Purchase a server and setup a basic webproxy. Costs around $2-5/mo. (Ie hosthatch.com have Sydney servers)
Option B:
Actually do work instead of Ozbargaining… Scary lol
On your lunch break, go out and use your own mobile connection on your own device. Easy to do and no problem with blocking. Then you can sleep easy knowing you are not stealing time/internet from your employer, which when you multiply your doings by how many staff there are doing the same or worse across the country and you wonder why there are fees, charges and end user prices above what they could be.
If my employer actively blocked a website (any website), I'd not want to visit that website while at work. They provide you the resources, and pay for your time, so they've a right to decide that you visiting a certain website is not in their best interests.
Sometime the policy is everyone gets access to a few sites, like news. You can read the 'paper' at your desk during lunch and that's about it.
CBA was like that, I never bothered to finish the paperwork to get better access (mainly to look up programming stuff). Found I could get to Microsoft and that was enough. Sometimes there was enough in the Google search results.
Anything else I just used my personal laptop (which I had sitting on my desk as well) tethered to the phone or looked it up at home and emailed it to work.
.. also you had guest WiFi in almost all offices, meant for employees with that specific purpose in mind. OP is likely not CBA or Westpac.
@OP is apparently at ANZ. Similar LAN environment.
Equipment was different, CBA was desktop PCs while the unfortunates got MacBook Airs (long story) that ran at 1/6th of the speed. Should be almost-as-bad HPs with missing dongles by now. ANZ was all laptops to encourage hot-desking that never happens along with PCs for 'power' users.
CBA had a limited whitelist for employees, you needed to defeat your boss to level up. I rarely encountered anything I was interested in blocked at ANZ (bar webmail, but that was expected).
You actually can route certain websites via a proxy but that involves a bit of configuration. Maybe too much effort.
Which bank?
they only block so theres less competition for them to grab thos BARGAInzzz
then work hard….
https://www.cheapcheaplah.com/
Lol, it's an actual site! Nice. Not the same deals posted though right?
Lol, it's an actual site!
Have a look at the bottom of this page. Y'know, the boring crap no-one ever looks at.
I thought it was AU as well. I guess not
My workplace blocked Facebook. I complained and said I needed it for work research purposes as the industry body had a Facebook page.
They unblocked Facebook. Didn't get fired either.
Just need a good excuse to argue your point.
Youtube was blocked at work before. Then upper management complained they cannot see a youtube video about the company someone uploaded. After that it was unblocked.
Just use a VPN
Setup your home machine to allow remote desktop. Eg team viewer
Remote into your home machine, ozb, play games, (insert other activities) etc
Built-in remote access disabled by group policy.
Third-party app installs disabled by group policy.
That's about the first thing you do when setting up the network.
I am one of the shareholders of OB's company (let's face it, if you have Super, you are one of the shareholders). No OZB for you at work. Do your work.
Jokes aside, just use your mobile phone. Don't do VPN or setup a ssh tunnel to your home machine. If work ever found out, you will be in big trouble (potentially lose your job).
Used to work at one of the top 4 banks.
My role used to allow me to have top level Internet access (for net security analysis, etc.) until one day that annual GM/EGM review became necessary to keep the special AD group membership.
Then,
TeamViewer - Blocked
Gmail - Blocked
… - Blocked
Fortunately, I had local admin access (most roles do not have that access). Tried many ways, either slow or unstable.
There were a few challenges:
Eventually, dual connection (Wired Corp Network + Wireless WiFi) + custom routing table + local DNS forwarder to split local and internet queries + shadowsocksr + Proxifier + low usage worked. And then I left the bank.
You worked at one of the banks before and you came up with all those dodgy stuff?
Honestly, for larger organisations, all your Internet usage is monitored. Most, if not all, do analysis on employees Web usage. If you download a lot, the network security team know. Some companies will even track your frequent visits to job seeking Web sites. Other than banking, even SSL traffic are monitored.
If you worked on departments which generally need a more relaxed Web access (i.e. marketing, Web/mobile development, public relations), you should be able to get access. Otherwise, just realise that OZB browsing is not work related.
Otherwise, just realise that OZB browsing is not work related.
No kidding. So is calling your wife to pick up some milk on the way home, or making a doctor's appointment. Don't even mention toilet breaks!
Good luck to employers who think it's a good idea to become a '1984' company.
Real personal things - i.e. banking, family matters, employers are fine with them (that's why banking Web sites are not monitored). OP's workplace is not banning employees to use OZB during work time, just banning them to do so using company's Internet. An IT security person admitting to public that he tried to hack work's network without company permission is shocking (just shows that some IT security people are really dodgy). People working in a bank and whinging about OZB being blocked, honestly, did you really do your compliance training?
You might think it is a big deal, but compared to other sites which my company already banned (all personal Mail Web sites for example, GMail, HotMail, YahooMail etc…), banning OZB is relatively minor. If my family sent me something urgent to my personal mail, I have to use my mobile phone to see them. There have been multiple occassions where the company's Web monitoring/proxy system caused issues (because it manipulates/proxies SSL Web sites) that I actually had to use my personal mobile phone/tablet to obtain the necessary Web resources to resolve work related issues.
Don't blow this out of proportion. Not able to browse OZB using work's Internet is not a crisis. Don't be so cheap and just use your mobile phone or tablet. Like I wrote before, if you have legit reason to use OZB for work, you can get an exemption for sure. For staff working on public relation, they most certainly have legit reasons to use OZB using work's Internet. This is not 1984, IT security departments are that lousy that exemptions cannot be granted.
Don't blow this out of proportion. Not able to browse OZB using work's Internet is not a crisis. Don't be so cheap and just use your mobile phone or tablet
This is exactly right. I really don't understand the drama behind this.
TtiGeR:
If this was truly required for your job, I'm sure you'd have a legit way of getting unfettered Internet access.
My boss was in trouble for that because I was instructed to find a way to RDP into VMs in AWS and Azure
Sounds like a project team trying out a 'tactical' solution. :)
In most cases, when an individual is caught (low-level grunts), the target gets ninja-banned (I've seen end-to-end from 'detection' to 'walking out the door' range around 15-20 mins).
As mentioned, it was mainly used to RDP to our cloud infrastructure while another department was setting up a proper TS gateway.
I had the necessary business approvals - though not technically implemented. It was like "find a way - you have the approval" - but the internet exemption levels were not defined in a way that would allow this required and approved level of access. We used Telstra 4G dongles for a while - but it was burning $$ too quickly.
Like I said in the previous reply - I was well aware of the monitoring and HTTPS termination - in fact, I was on the distribution list of some of those monitoring reports and analysis.
The bank always had "tactical" solutions to circumvent network-wide restrictions. For example, the mobile team always had a secret "consumer-grade" Wireless AP, for iOS devices to access the test bed. The security team was unhappy and even instructed the team to remove the device, but it lasted as long as I was aware of. Ultimately, a security exemption can always be approved to override standard policies - as long as the approver (usually GM or higher) is willing to accept the risk.
PS. OZBargain was not blocked while I worked there. :)
Nice, we've got two now. Out of interest, what software did you use for your mirror? It's a lot faster than mine.
Looks like aws cloudfront with ozbargain as the source.
You can put cloudfront (or cloudflare) in front of your own site if you want to, which will make the page load faster for people further away from your server (there are edge nodes all around the world) and it can even terminate the TLS for you.
Cloudflare is on my server actually. He probably just has a faster server than mine, I'm running this off a stick computer in my study :P
"Edge node" means the very end of internet? I think I was there one night after browsing porn websites for about 5 hours. I reached the end and everything was a repeat.
Boom
2 mirrors
well done guys
I would cry
fark the banks
I don't know if Scotty would like the mirrors. It's not showing any ads without loging on.
Reading this makes me so happy I work in a place that has Nerf guns, Larping swords and sometimes even dogs ( staff are allowed to bring their dog to work) and we are allowed to watch youtube videos when it is quiet… ah Happiness at work.
I watch Youtube even when busy. Can't get to Horn Pub though.
We can there are no website blocks…lol
Use a proxy server
Also added https://ob828.azurewebsites.net, probably more reliable than my other server but the domain name annoys me lol
Oh! Do you mind giving me instructions on how you configured azure webapps to operate as a reverse proxy to ozbargain?
Sorry for the late reply. Just load https://github.com/Athlon1600/php-proxy-app or a similar application on the server. All you need to do is download the pre-compiled ZIP, extract it & copy the contents onto the server via FTP.
I'm wondering if there is a better solution. This is for relaying a georestricted api that I want to use in Australia.
Do you perhaps know how to implement it using url_rewrite rules?
Just access through your phone.
Let me guess? You have Aldi 365 prepaid and no data access to save money?
Hahaha typical Ozbargainer.
Sorry we will not provide an official OzBargain mirror, especially when the network admin has deliberately tried to block the access to this website.
May I also discourage people from creating reverse proxy to OzBargain (using a CDN for example), or using any of those reverse proxies. Several users have had their accounts compromised by OzBargain-look-alike sites in the past asking for their credentials. When you put in your OzBargain username/password on one of those proxy sites — you'll never know what the man-in-the-middle would do with your login info.
Understood, I agree. I've just updated my mirror so that all requests to log in will be redirected to the homepage, making it impossible for me to sniff out logins, as users simply won't be able to provide them.
Thanks. I guess if your proxy is for private use or just share with friends who trust you — then that's fine. What I don't want to see is people publicly announcing "I made an OzBargain mirror/proxy here! Please use it!" And yet we have no idea what they do with data collected…
Hey op
Is the keyword also blocked? I mean any attempt to reach the website with the word ozbargain in the domain or within the code is blocked?
Take it as a backhanded pay rise.
Tunnel Bear chrome plugin it's free for 0.5GB
Dear OP, we are in the same boat. You may want to try Twitter as an alternative. OZB has accounts for both deals and hot bargains. You cannot drill into the links, but it is still a lot better than not having access at all. Cheers.
@O15: no, he's bought the OP some time.
And if other staff were on OzBargain, the OP might go unnoticed connecting to this site.
Avoiding "OzBargain" in the name is reasonable.