We use internet on daily basis. At home and at our work. I’m for internet use and would always encourage people to use it. But there should be some limits about using internet in a company.
Facts: I do use internet on a daily basis, I’m against real censorship, and I do encourage people to use internet as much as they can. Internet can be a perfect way to find information about almost everything. But I do agree with parental filters and proxy usage.
Internet at work: Using internet at work is something normal. E-mail is our way of communication. Searching on internet is a way to find information, find business opportunities and also some information for personal use. It can be also our core business.
How to make internet usage really useful for company: We have to use some tools that would help us filter our internet traffic. First we can use proxy. It gives as a wide range of options for content filtering and statistic. Use content filtering and statistic to get real good results. But remember it wont help just to block some specific sites or content. Use statistic to see what sites are on the top of the list. Block some specific content and content types.
Remember: Explain all those steps you took to users. Explaining those filters and teaching users how to use internet is only good way to do and you can not believe what you can achieve with that.
If we have to take care for more than one location connected with main server over internet trough VPN tunnel, we have all rights to define what type of internet traffic is allowed.
Reality: Computer users usually like to make complaints about how every application is working slow, how internet is slow, how nothing is like it should be. In that cases I suggest to do following: check what processes are running and check proxy server statistic. in most cases it is not internal Information System that work slow, but user’s computer that got virus or some simple P2P protocol traffic or just internet radio.
What is amazing is that when P2P traffic is not working as it should, there is no real complain.
Why Internet traffic should be filtered in companies: The main reasons are security, reliability and availability. We can provide this by using firewall, proxy servers and anti-virus software. Today there are many good solutions available, we just have to choose one.
How: First of all we have to have clear company policy on that issue. Every employee should be aware of it and must be familiar with it.
User awareness: Education of employees is a very important factor on which we must not forget. They should learn about possible dangers on the Internet and about consequences of improper use of web browsing. It should be explained that it is not about censoring the content it’s only about filtering the dangerous type of internet traffic, that could bring us a lot of trouble, costs and in the worst scenario some real damage.
Conclusion: Internet is a perfect way to get information. Use it at work as a tool that can give you some advantage, not as a tool that slows down your work. Every company should have an an Internet use policy and should combine it with some network monitoring tools or filters.
Use it for fun, music, tourist info and games at home. You should also use good anti-virus software and some basic firewall on your home PC. (that ’s another story)
Sun, Nov 30, 2008, by Lasan
Web Talk