Times are different now, a lot of people work at places where a computer is a part of their day. Entering in numbers, doing research, looking up parts….it would be pretty easy to find a pc at the workplace.

Sometimes, you will need to do "personal" things online. When you make that attempt, you may find out the internet access is blocked, or restricted severely enough to where it is almost unusable.

Some companies really got a hold on their networks and it will take some real hacking to bypass all that stuff. Which in turn may cause big trouble for you if you get caught. Today  I’m talking about  some pretty simple easy ways to sneak around that "internet wall" so you can pay your cable bill or check your messages on myspace…innocent stuff.

Ubuntu

1. The first thing you may want to do, and also the easiest is to get a boot cd, or "live cd". You can download a iso image of Ubuntu here to creat one. A good IT department would have the network nailed down so that this wouldn’t work but you wouldn’t believe how many places don’t. Ive been to places where if you are logged in on their computers, internet access is blocked, but if you turn off the computer and booted the pc using Ubuntu or any other linux or winPE based boot cd, you’d have all the internet access you want.

To try this you would need to be able to boot from a cd at your job’s PC. If it doesn’t boot on the first try, and you know what your doing, you can try to boot into the bios (by hitting F1 or DEL when you start the PC) and change the boot order so that it looks to boot from the cd first.

If using a boot cd doesn’t work, dont give up just yet.

The next 2 tips will have different uses, but the combination of knowing them, and a poorly maintained network at your workplace would have you hooked up in case you need it.

2. There are plenty of online places or software solutions that allow you to access your home PC from anywhere. Gotomypc, Pc Anywhere, and a few others, but a lot of times those solutions will cost you a few bucks, and in some cases require you to install software on the PC at work…which is something you dont want to do.

 Orb is a solution that Ive talked about before, but with a different use in mind. To explain, Orb is basically a media server that you install on your pc at home. It scans the folders you specify for audio and video. then from any computer with internet access, you can simply go to Orb.com, log in, and stream those media files from your home PC to your current location.

One feature of Orb that many may not pay attention to is the file browser. Once orb is set up on your home PC, you can log into your Orb account from any computer, select the file browser, and you now have access to all of the files on your PC. You can upload and download files too and from any folder. This is not that magical feature that will allow you to gain access to anything you didn’t already have access too, except your pc, but it will allow you grab those Gwen Stefani MP3’s you forgot to transfer to your Zune before you left home.

3.The last little tip I have for sneaking around your workplace’s internet filter is one that if it works, will be a gold mine….a slow gold mine but a gold mine non the less.

Virtual Network Clients are great solutions to access and control your PC remotely. There are 2 solutions that I have tried before that I thought worked pretty well, UltraVNC and RealVNC (info on usb versions of both can be found here). My favorite of the two is UltraVNC.  How it works is quite simple. You install UltraVNC on your PC at home, add a password and your all set. Then you can carry the "viewer" program on a cd or USB drive. launch the Viewer from your Work PC, put in your home PC’s IP address and password you set up for UltraVNC and you will see your Home PC’s desktop in a window on your PC at work. Guess what? You can do everything you would with your PC as if you were actually at the home PC. Open Firefox or Internet Explorer and you have access to everything.

This options is good if you absolutely have to do something online real quick, but it will be a pretty slow process. what would actually be happening… your PC at home would do the surfing and stream the display to the PC at work. You have no limitations as far as what you do online.