Help me win back my internet access.

B

BCannell

New member
Background: I go to school at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, an admissions-based, tuition-free residential high school attached to the UNC system rather than any local districts. Here we are provided with internet access, but all traffic goes through a filter called Websense. One of the categories that it blocks is "Weapons," and the blocked sites include such resources as thefiringline.com and world.guns.ru. This displeases me. However, there is a process for convincing the school to unblock certain websites, though they are generally reluctant to do so.

In order to convince them, I've decided to try to develop evidence of a school-wide bias against the right-wing positions on the issues of gun control, armed self-defense and homeland security, hunting, and so forth. To do that I need to develop a list of blocked websites that are or could be construed as supporting the conservative positions on the aforementioned issues. Since few if any sites supporting the opposing viewpoints are blocked, this would be sufficient evidence of an institutional bias. The North Carolina legislature is the sole source of the school's funding, and since it happens to be controlled by Republicans, that should be sufficient. There is already a persistent fear among many conservatives of liberal brainwashing in the education system. I think I could make this look like an example of that, make it look like the school is trying to prevent kids from reading about the conservative ideas on these issues. With any luck, I can use that as leverage and force them to unblock the sites, perhaps even make them remove the "Weapons" category altogether. But to do that, I need your help.

Please submit the address for every website you can think of concerned with firearms and the conservative ideas thereof. Every forum, every organization, every manufacturer, every gun store with a web presence. I will check them to see if they are blocked and then compile the blocked sites into a list that I can use. I know of some, but there undoubtedly hundreds of good ones that I am unaware of. If it works, it will be a small victory, but a victory all the same.

The list so far:

www.thefiringline.com
www.ogca.com
www.firearmstactical.com
www.defensereview.com
www.glocktalk.com
www.ar15.com
www.1911forum.com
http://www.milsurpshooter.net/
http://www.gunboards.com/forums/
http://7.62x54r.net/
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com
http://www.gunsandammomag.com/
http://www.reloadersnest.com/
http://www.aimsurplus.com/
http://www.aimpoint.com
http://www.ammunitionstore.com/index.htm
http://www.impactguns.com/store/index.html
http://www.wolfammo.com/
http://www.perfectunion.com/
http://www.gunsnet.net/forums/
httP://world.guns.ru
http://www.thefirearmsforum.com
 
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Best of luck in your up-hill battle against the liberal left control system........ Your action against them is patriotic and worthy.......... :D
 
Here we are provided with internet access, but all traffic goes through a filter called Websense.
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That's your problem. They give it to you.

How about finding a free internet provider and dialing in? Sure it isn't going to be fast, but you can still get to the sites you want to.

See if they have a pay internet service. Probably won't have a filter on it.

Check state laws. May be that free public internet has to have a filter on it, and there is nothing you can do.

See if there is a place where you can request a page be unfiltered. Many times they simply do a scan for objectionable words, and filter the pages by default.
 
quote:
In order to convince them, I've decided to try to develop evidence of a school-wide bias against the right-wing positions on the issues of gun control, armed self-defense and homeland security, hunting, and so forth.

Is your school a hot bed of liberalism and has it been for a long time. If Not.....

Can you say "College Alumni"
You make them see the light by touching their Pocket Book.

Jungle Work
 
Heya!

That's your problem. They give it to you.
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True, and that makes it harder. However, the school is residential (i.e. we have to live here), so they are in loco parentis, and are required to provide us with reasonable amenities. Nowadays that includes internet access, and I must argue that a reasonable parent would allow their child access to these websites.

How about finding a free internet provider and dialing in? Sure it isn't going to be fast, but you can still get to the sites you want to.
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No phone lines in the rooms. I used an open proxy for a while, but they've started to monitor for them.

See if they have a pay internet service. Probably won't have a filter on it.

Check state laws. May be that free public internet has to have a filter on it, and there is nothing you can do.
Click to expand...

Good idea, I'll check that out.

See if there is a place where you can request a page be unfiltered. Many times they simply do a scan for objectionable words, and filter the pages by default.
Click to expand...

There is a process for that, but it's notoriously difficult to get them to unblock a page.

Is your school a hot bed of liberalism and has it been for a long time. If Not.....

Can you say "College Alumni"
You make them see the light by touching their Pocket Book.
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I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out. Thanks.

After checking the provided links, I've edited my first post with the list of blocked sites. It seems that sites devoted entirely to politics are not blocked, but if it involves politics in addition to practical information on firearms, it's likely to be filtered.

Thanks for your help, everyone. Keep 'em coming!
 
Does the school block remote login to external servers via Secure Shell? (Chances are, it does not). If you are able to use Secure Shell, then you can tunnel all of your web traffic through an encrypted channel to a machine that is outside the school's domain. Once you've set up a tunnel, you can proxy all of your web traffic through the remote machine, and the school would be none the wiser.

I'd be very surprised if they even managed to detect what you were doing; at most, their network logs would show an encrypted connection to a server that's not on their "block" list. There's no way for them to tell where you're surfing beyond that. Unless they've got spyware installed on your machine (possible) or the remote one (unlikely).

As for access to a server suitable for this purpose, it's relatively simple. One sends a PM to me, and says, "Hi, BP. I'd like to do that encrypted-tunnel proxy thing you were talking about." And then I PM back, and say, "Ok, BCannell, we can do that."

This does not speak to the ethics of the situation. If the school is acting in loco parentis, then they have the right and obligation to limit where you go. You have the right to request they change their rules, but circumventing them entirely is likely to lead to some form of unpleasant consequence or other. As such, my posting is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as an endorsement of any rule-breaking. :)

-BP
 
That is very irresponsible for you to give that kind of advice to one who is likely a minor, Broken Paw. What are you thinking? Your "disclaimer" is pure bull. Here's how to make a bomb Osama, but it's only for informational purposes so promise not to...
 
Oh, I missed the part where you said high school. I jsut saw UNC and assumed college. You may have a much harder time than I imagined.

And you don't have phones in your rooms? Isn't that a hazard to not have some sort of communication to 911? I find it interesting that they provide you ionternet but not phones.

And if you are planning a case against the bias against right-wing, you may want to incorporate more than gun sites. Try anti-abortion sites, pro-war sites, anything really aligned more towards the right wing than the left wing.

Anyway, best of luck.

On second thought, are these on school computers, or your own personal computer?
 
Unique,

It's not as if a brief and not-particularly-imaginative search on Google would not have told him the same thing.

Besides, for him to do as I suggested, he'd need access to an outside server. Given that, there's a certain amount of infrastructure he'd need to establish before he'd be able to do it. And, if he is a minor, I'd at the very least have the wit to determine whether he has parental permission to do what I said before I gave him access to my server as a proxy.

My disclaimer was not therefore, as you say, pure bull.

Further, the fact that he even posted his query here means that he's managed to get access to this site somehow, from somewhere. Which means that he wouldn't be getting something he doesn't already have; he'd just be getting it in a probably more convenient manner.

Relax. It's all ones and zeros.

-BP
 
Help me win back my internet access.
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Well, unless you had access before the filters, you can't win back that which you never had.

I highly doubt that you are going to be able to have the filters removed based on your wanting to argue politics and political influences. The school isn't going to care that you think it is a political issue or that the filtered sites are filtered to keep students from learning about political issues. Probably one of the reasons why it won't work as they were the ones who put it into place. I have no doubt that they will get a chuckle out notion that you think it is part of a brainwashing conspiracy. Since they would be part of said conspiracy, pointing out that you feel they are doing something unethical acts, you won't win and friends.
 
Unfortunately, high schools and anything gun related are a taboo now adays. However, it is a worthy fight. Try the research angle. I think that is the way to go vice the black helicopter, conspiracy route. Draft up a paper that states what type of quality research you want to conduct, and how these sites are a valuable resource to the student body. If you can get your parents in on it, more the better (the school sees that your parents have ok'd it, and that they will not be held responsible for you surfing the gun sites). Good luck
 
Broken Paw - Your answer actually makes it even more unclear what you are thinking. You are saying he could do it without your help, anyway. So, why would you insert yourself so unneccessarily into a situation like this with a minor? For your own sake, protect yourself, BP, this type of stuff are hot button issues that could trip you up. Anyway, I'm sorry I described your disclaimer as "bull". I shouldn't be swearing at people. Take care, Unique 5.7
 
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