QF censors FT - Deemed innapropriate
 

This morning at the SYD 1st lounge I tried to log on to FT from the computers in the lounge. The Cyber Patrol software here now blocks access to FT deeming it to have inappropriate content

Dave

I wonder if it's smart enough to work on content or if it's domain based. EG if you browse to the IP of 64.78.185.85 I wonder what happens

Im surprised it wasn't blocked before. Most content blocking software default blocks sites that have the word gay in it, considering it closely tied into porn and other so called corporate objectional material. As there is a glbt forum, it could be something as simple as that, rather than Qantas censoring for want. Also, it's all part of the Telstra out sourcing deal, so not really internal Qantas IT.

I disagree - it is QF that are responsible for the sensoring, whether a QF person does it or someone else contracted by them is not my concern as one of their customers.

It could be something as simple as this:

QF does an audit of what sites people are visiting
QF sees a breakdown something like:

50% hotmail
20% yahoo
10% flyertalk
5% other

(just as a guestimate)

They think "hmm, these pc's are provided for people to check their email etc. what's this flyertalk thing that people are spending hours on?" then.. whammo...

Often in this kind of situation it's not in particular that the site itself is objectionable, but it doesn't fit the intended use. For example, at one company I worked at, we (IS Systems) were instructed to block access to a certain popular site - not because there was anything objectionable about it, but simply because people were spending too much work time there and the managers felt it was wasting too much work time (& resources) etc.

I don't know if it's for QF to do such things, but heck, they provide the service, so I guess you have to live by their rules (or use your own laptop).

I doubt it's anything as pety as "oh, we saw what people write on that board - it's all about abusing the QP for free HP's etc.. we don't want that!" :)

(incidently I seem to recall hearing QF outsourced much of this stuff to IBM recently??)

You CAN access FT at the QP
 

Click on "Forums" which appears top left above the cyber patrol message. Works fine for me.

I had that problem in the NY first lounge and also in Kuala Lumpur MAS lounge.
I did think at the time it was very annoying.
I will try it today.

This also works for me (in the MEL dom QP)


The PC's are now IBM's by Telstra Enterprise Services


Get the same cybercop screen as http://www.flyertalk.com directly

I'm in the SYD QF first lounge right now and had the same problem but then I clicked on the Forums tab and it worked as other have found!

Hopefully this loophole wont be closed.

All pretty curious that someone at Qantas placed a block in the first place. :confused:

Seems rather petty, and as others have posted if you are creative you can get around it anyway. Wonder it any other airline lounges have had a block placed on Flyertalk?

I do not travel with a laptop, so always log into FT on my travels using the free PC's in lounges and have never ever had a problem with direct access.

My experience in KUL is different to tinkybelle's report below where access many times times this year in the superb MH First Class and Business Centre lounges in KL to FT was no issue at all.

Not happy Jan if they block FT at QP's
 

I share the same experiences as previous posters - I don't have a laptop and therefore rely on the Business Centre compuers for access to FT when travelling.

I've never had trouble in any of the QP's before, but perhaps this is a new restriction. Certainy didn't have any access problems at CHC QP yesterday, which I was pleased to see had 5 computers available.

It is important to understand how web filtering operates. Most filtering is not manually configured to block individual and specific sites. The blocking is done based on a rating or type coding that has been assigned to a site being requested. Sites can be rated by content into one or more buckets, such as gaming, gambling, soft porn, hard porn, family, education etc. These categories can be blocked or accepted.

The problem arises as to how to deal with un-rated sites. Try turning on content control in MS Internet Explorer, and then go to www.news.com.au. That site in unrated as far as IE is concerned. If unrated sites are blocked, then its no go.

It may well be that CyberPatrol does not have a rating or category for the front page of FT, and hence it is blocked. This may not be a QF pr Telstra issue, but just that the guru's at CyberPatrol who maintain the site categorisation have been slack with the FT front page, but have rated the deeper pages.

Then again, it may be QF just trying to have a dig at us :D .

"I've never had trouble in any of the QP's before, but perhaps this is a new restriction."

Whilst doing a survey on whether the BNE dom pub was fully stocked on HPs this eve, I tried out a pooter there and it came up with the block from cyber patrol. By selecting the forums tab, the forums were accessible

"Certainy didn't have any access problems at CHC QP yesterday, which I was pleased to see had 5 computers available."

QF do seemed to have nicely increased the number of computers. Theres about 4 at SYD and MEL int F lounges now and SYD dom seems to have added a few. Quite good

Dave

It is a fairly recent change. I noticed a few weeks ago that chat had been disabled (sorry forgot to post this), and now tries to block the whole site. This leads me to wonder if maybe it is the chatroom that is the issue rather than FT per se?