I'm going to play devil's advocate here.
> - privacy: who is allowed to see the log reports? the admin is ok, but why
> the managers? the FW is here for security not for "spying" the employees.
You could argue this. In many companies, the fact that firewall's can be
used to monitor employee internet access is one of their biggest selling
points. Employer's own the PCs, bandwidth, and even time that employees use
for surfing, so why call it 'spying?' Is it spying to monitor my home with
an electronic surveillance system, or cameras in order to catch someone who
breaks in? If not, then how is it anymore spying to monitor usage of my
resources to ensure no one is abusing them? In corporations where proposals
are sent by email, and web access can be business critical, is it wrong to
keep users from downloading MP3s and surfing for porn while other, business
critical traffic, is forced to queue up or time our entirely?
> - managers may jump to bad conclusions. While the admin can understand
> much things about networking, this is not necessarily the case of
managers.
> indeed, for a manager, the "lost tme" is the total time the user doesn't
spend
> on working. but this is not exactly the same as the one in the logs (just
> imagine
> automatic downloads and the like. one can work while his machine is
surfing!).
> also, if you receive messages from a mailing list, you'll be in the
> top-mail-recipients,
> even if you don't read them. ...
This is an educational issue. It's important to inform people about how to
read reports. I think most managers I've encountered are as much concerned
with the type of content as they are with the duration of it's viewing.
> limiting internet access to improve productivity is inefficient. After
all,
> there are a lot of ways to lose time, and that may be done in ways that
manaers > find it good (give yourself a Dilbert reading).
This is true, but somewhat akin to saying that people will waste time, so
why try to stop them. Besides, I think the concern is not so much users
wasting time as it is the fact that they're wasting resources. Those
resources could be helping someone else who is working and bringing in
business to the company actively.
> The only reason I see for limiting access is for legal or reputation
problems.
> but that's a long long story. After all, I'm not a lawyer :)
That's obviously a concern too. Especially under the broad definition of
'hostile workplace'
Jeff Jarmoc - CCNA, MCSE
Network Analyst - Grubb & Ellis
847.753.7617
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
---
The opinions expressed above are not necessarily mine, but are those of the
'devil's advocate'
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