techy net question

[rong]

I work for a large corporate company who restrict internet access, ie no porn, gambling, games sites etc but not totally restricted to just work related stuff.

I have my personal laptop with me today. I intend to try and use their net connection on my laptop to play poker on stars.

If it lets me connect, is there any way they can tell what I'm doing or that a computer from this office has been used for playing poker, and is it likely they'd either be able to or actually find out. Ie would they need to be looking for it or would some kind of system automatically inform them?

[DoubleJ]

Your network administrator will log ALL network use/traffic.

i'd be very careful here, as breach of network use rules are considered a serious disciplinary offense.

basically - don't do it, mate.

[boost]

ya, this is a very bad idea.

[rong]

Bugger! Thanks guys.

[Sasquach991]

If you are that bored at work then why not use your laptop to open HEM/PT and do some thorough HH reviews

[DoubleJ]

If you are that bored at work then why not use your laptop to open HEM/PT and do some thorough HH reviews

an expert skiver speaks

[bigred]

Can network admins track internet traffic back to a cat5 jack? I mean, if they can, it doesn't matter what computer you use as it can be tracked back to you.

However, if you connected wirelessly they'd be able to track your mac address of your personal pc but I don't think they'd ever be able to link you to that PC.

Also, the chances of the above "tracking" occuring, whether possible or not, is borderline non existent for network admins. They have more important things to do and are usually strapped for time firefighting outages and other issues. That being said, even a 1% chance risk of losing your job if they do ever find you is probably not worth it.

Disclaimer: If you work for a financial institution they probably track and monitor EVERYTHING

[bigred]

Additions to wireless, they could track it back to the access point you're logged into and generally locate the area the traffic is coming from. Then they'd do a physical sweep for unauthorized computers. Also, most enterprise wireless access points require lots of credentials so you probably couldn't log a personal computer anyway.

[bigred]

In conclusion to my triple post, if you're not worried about being physically seen playing poker on a computer AND you're a profitable player, why not buy an air card for your personal computer? All telecom providers offer this service and you would never have to worry about any issues with your company besides someone looking over your shoulder.

[bigred]

I feel like I won this thread. Dan can either take my advice and buy an air card or admit he sucks at poker and then no one cares!

GAME BLOUSES

[rong]

Actually, I only had my laptop at work today because I picked it up from the laptop fixer people, so it was a one off, no point me buying this air thing you speak of or demanding your roll in a game of heads up.

[lolzzz_321]

bigred loves to help with school projects; he is knowledgeable

[Jack Sawyer]

I work for a large corporate company who restrict internet access, ie no porn, gambling, games sites etc but not totally restricted to just work related stuff.

I have my personal laptop with me today. I intend to try and use their net connection on my laptop to play poker on stars.

If it lets me connect, is there any way they can tell what I'm doing or that a computer from this office has been used for playing poker, and is it likely they'd either be able to or actually find out. Ie would they need to be looking for it or would some kind of system automatically inform them?

StrongVPN.com is VPN service, offers security and anonymity for personal use

[mbiz]

haha using a VPN at work, now that looks LEGIT!

[Jack Sawyer]

haha using a VPN at work, now that looks LEGIT!

The question remains, does the work IT department have strong enough kung-fu to know what you are up to with your VPN?

[lolzzz_321]

Private SSH Tunnels | PrivateTunnels.com

??

[Sprayed]

Private SSH Tunnels | PrivateTunnels.com

??

My company busted a guy using an SSH. He found an open port in the company firewall. Would have gotten away with it if the guy hadn't reported himself. He was using it to connect to his server at home so that he could play iTunes. My experience is that IT doesn't normally have the resources to track live activity. They keep records in order bust people after the fact.

OP, if your company has a decent network, I would doubt that it would allow a computer that was not issued or configured by the company to connect.

[eugmac]

Asked a friend of mine who works as a systems admin at a university and he said that on HIS network probably nobody cares enough to check, but it wouldn't be hard to do if they decided to have a look. Depends on how much your company cares about what goes on on their networks, i.e. they probably care very much if you work for a bank or the government.

Nothing that hasn't been said before, but the risk of ruin is probably far too high to justify the small gain.

[eugmac]

anyway since this thread is pretty much done, this reminds me of one time I got suspended from high school by abusing the "net send" command and sending a message to all computers on the network pretending to be the admin asking everybody to immediately shut down for maintenance. i put it in an infinitely looping batch file so the message kept being sent every 5 seconds or so. caused a small amount of chaos and work disruption for people who were working in the offices. no, i didn't use somebody else's login 'cause i didn't particularly care about being caught. in that instance, the admin ran into the room right as I was trying to leave it and pointed to the chair i had just vacated and was screaming "who the hell was in THAT chair?!". It was pretty funny.

[mbiz]

heheh jack my point was more that if they see you using a VPN then its only up to their imagination what you might be doing - child porn? h4xing?

[TLR]

Unless your company are totally security wackos nobody will bother in most cases, they probably do have logs of all traffic going in and out of the organzation but as you can guess those are countless number of records and usually nobody cares unless there is an issue in the network, then they will go and check logs

That being said pokerstars run on a dedicated port that is probably blocked in your company's firewall if they have any kind of decent security policy.

There is a way to connfigure the pokerstars client to run over SSL port (443) which is open in most firewalls, google Pokerstars and firewall or something similar and find out what to twick

[Nekrogovner]

Additions to wireless, they could track it back to the access point you're logged into and generally locate the area the traffic is coming from. Then they'd do a physical sweep for unauthorized computers. Also, most enterprise wireless access points require lots of credentials so you probably couldn't log a personal computer anyway.

LOOOOL!!! If any corporation is actually sick enough to do this I wouldn't wait to get fired, I'd quit the job myself. I ain't no working for Sick Nazi Tyrantical Big Brother Psychopaths.

But ontopic, unless you need some personal credentials to log in to wireless network, they pretty much cannot spot you any other way then by physical search.


On the other hand, if you cannot log onto something (pokerstars, porn, whatever) with companies computer, then you cannot log on that with laptop either. All traffic if probably blocked on exit point where your network accesses WAN, so pretty much any device inside has the same privileges, unless stated otherwise by admin.

EDIT: I think the guy above me wrote the similar stuff.

[NightGizmo]

LOOOOL!!! If any corporation is actually sick enough to do this I wouldn't wait to get fired, I'd quit the job myself. I ain't no working for Sick Nazi Tyrantical Big Brother Psychopaths.

This isn't as uncommon as you think, especially at larger companies that deal with sensitive personal information (banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, etc.). Someone unauthorized jumping on their network is a rather large security risk. They also see non-company devices as security risks, since they aren't running their approved (and often company-managed) virus scanners, firewalls, etc.

Back when I did security consulting, I occasionally ended up at customer sites that refused to let me even plug my laptop into one of their ethernet ports, because it was against their policy. Even though they were paying for me to be there to improve their security, my laptop was a security threat (not exactly logical, but that's bureaucracy for you).