So I visited this site on my personal cell phone while forgetting i was connected to my companies wifi. It was blocked for "pornographic reasons." Question is are they able to track this back to the actual employee? I believe the IP address is the same for anyone connected to the same wifi network?
There are ways of masking it of course, but don't EVER use a hotel server or your office to search adult sites. If you used THEIR network, damn right they can track you. Don't you have a password to log in to the system?
Yes but a bunch of people use the password. I guess the question is how can they differentiate different people logging into the network.
So if Bob is surfing child porn sites, he can just blame that on Bill? I don't think so. They have a way of knowing who is logged into what, or they are not too bright. Even a damn hotel has more IT smarts.
Each individual computer has an IP address specific to it. Web sites visited can be tracked by that IP address. Your phone has one to. It's not hard to track at all. Hotels you're safe pretty much, to many computers on their wifi for a day or two at most unless they are giving out individual passwords.
However... I own the company LOL !
Your device registers on the network as "your device"
Each user is given an IP in an order such as 192.1.1.1, 192.1.1.2, 192.1.1.3 , Etc etc and each device carries a unique device name as the time it is registered on the network.
If your IT guys want to be a dick, they can see who accesses what or who attempted to access what.
Best to lay off the company network when "playing"
..is the MAC address problem. IP addresses on a network are "leased" for a specific period. If you wait long enough (where "waiting" can = as long as a month or even a year in some cases), your IP address will ultimately be re-assigned as long as you do not "renew" the lease, i.e., access the 'net again with that same device before the lease expires.
The more difficult issue is the MAC address--this has nothing to do with MAC as in "a product produced by Apple". Every computer-like device capable of accessing the 'net has a unique Media Access Control address (it is possible to "spoof" a MAC address, but it's a non-trivial matter to do so).
"The system" is aware that a device with the MAC address of OP's cellphone tried to access the network for the purpose of getting to this site. Whether or not anybody who works in that company's IT dept. is on "porn patrol" is a separate matter.
They can probably trace it back to you if they know you use your phone to access wifi or if you have a password that's specific to you. Even just tracking the web sites you went to might give you away. Facebook would be a big one.
just my thoughts. Use 4 g at work and turn off wifi if that's what you want to do.
You may be a tad paranoid. It's easy to think the world is watching you when you log into a site and something like that happens. They have it blocked for a reason, and you didn't get into the site. Take a deep breath. I'm sure you're going to be fine. Just don't do it again... Unless there's more to the story.
If worse comes to worse,
Just say you were trying to google an economic review or something. 
I don't access sites like this at work EVER; or with work computers. There are all sorts of traces left when you access sites.
One time I was trying to show someone a site that I had created on tripod and it was blocked as pornographic. I was afraid the site had changed-it hadn't. But I let my boss know what had happened so if it got tracked by IT he would know about it; and would know what I was looking at.
More than likely nothing will happen-but just be careful from now on.
*****KNOCK KNOCK*****
RUN!
they are after you!
Who are they? And why are they watching me? And who are those people that talk to me in my head? Oh my goodness I think I'be gone crazy, no wait I'be been there and back. Huh?
Do you see why I need a good BJ now and then? If you're bonkers and you know it raise your hand.
Lmao
RUN!
they are after you!
That's why they block them. Cheaper to block than patrol. They won't spend time looking through logs of who may have been blocked by the rules.
Now, if another employee reports you to HR they will pull your access records and discover your history.
People think their email is safe, wanna guess how many guys here use their work email address for their account setup on TER? Wanna guess how easily that is traced
If a guy uses his work address to setup his TER account, he deserves to lose his job because he's too stupid to have a job.
Shares !
Chances are you'll be OK with only one offense but if you did it again you might hear from your boss. Your IP is assigned by your company and it tracks right back to your computer.
One other thing to be aware of. Companies can spoof an https encrypted connection like gmail and actually decrypt your email and read it. You'd never know they were intercepting your messages while thinking you're safe because you're on an https connection. Given that you're on a company network, assume that everything you're doing is being intercepted and don't trust secure https connections unless you have the technical know-how to test your company for spoofing. There is a way to test this but it's complicated.
Actually, most HTTPS connections (VPN based) are dealt with in VPN concentrators that are in front of the servers they work with. So, by the time your browser sees a gmail message, the VPN concentrator has already decoded it, fed it through another security device and recoded it for your machine.
using the key that is unique to each encyrpted web site. If the company is doing what you describe, the unique key will not match the one assigned to the encyrpted site and that mismatch is how you'll know your company is decrypting your secure connections. See the link below for instructions on how to check this at your company.
-- Modified on 9/17/2013 10:11:30 PM
you may be my boss trying to hack my internet service
A lot of companies (mine included) block all access to personal email on our work machines. So I'm not checking personal email at work (I wait until I get home).
The last fucking thing I'm worried about is this site being tracked. LOL
.. depending on the size of your employer, they use router or windows based IP Access Control Lists (ACL) to allow or deny target IP addresses and IP ports. They get the list of blocked sites from a publishing service that updates the software that they are using. If you are in a large company, they use Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software to do the same thing and much more. Every device on the network requires an individual IP address, or you'll have an IP address conflict and the company network will not work for the device. I won't get into the minutia of the technology, just trust me.
If you access a porn site or ANY address that is in the blocked list of IP addresses or IP ports, your company would log the address of the originating request (your machine or device), depending in the IP address lease given to it, the target IP Address and the reason it was blocked. They can trace this back to you because of the device name of your device on the company network and its association with the leased IP address.
Some content on the internet is accessed inadvertently. If you get a spam mail, it may contain a porn site that s automatically accessed as soon as you open the mail, for example, and will be blocked and logged. In the majority of employers, this infrequent, inadvertent access is logged to you and is not pursued. On the other hand, if you are constantly trying to log into sites that you have already been informed are banned, this will set a flag for IT to talk to HR about the fact that you are a dumb ass that is trying to access banned content at work. BTW, it's not just porn in many places. It also includes gaming sites and many of the job recruiting sites, as examples.
If you are reported for constant access to known and informed blocked sites, HR will have a conversation with you that they will document and deal with you according to company policy. If you are not doing anything illegal, you will likely get a letter telling you are a dumb ass and if you do it again, you will be an unemployed dumb ass. If on the other hand, if you graduate to shit for brains and are doing something illegal, like viewing kiddy porn, which one of my employees once did (in an IT security company, no less), you will likely not know you were caught until the local police come to the work place to arrest you and confiscate any devices you own, as I did to my employee.
So, this is along winded way to tell you not to sweat the little shit and if you are going to access anything for the hobby, turn off your wireless access on any device and use 3G or 4G. Don't be an incredible dumb ass and you'll be OK.
-- Modified on 9/17/2013 11:08:10 PM