Do IT gys really read your emails?

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.. and can they tell/do they care what you are looking at on the net, and how much time you spend doing it?
I'm doing a temp job for a semi-large firm, and a lot of the time I have not much to do so I tend to browse sites like this one and my personal email a fair bit. I also write a lot of personal emails from my work mail client. Who would be looking at this and what would they be looking for?
I know there are some sys-admin types on this board so I ownder if you can enlighten me as to what goes on on a work network...
Thanks!

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

They coudl in theory and they alwasy threaten to but can you imagine how much extra work it would be for them? companies must handle at least 400 emails a day! it would take forever.

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

They can if they want to. Chances are, they either won't have time or won't care.

The larger the firm, the less likely it is that some random IT guy will be able to do this; but the more likely it is that they'll have formal arrangements for a specific IT guy to keep a check on what people are doing.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

Also, it depends on how much you're supposed to be using the net for legitimate work reasons. If you're not supposed to be able to do stuff at all, then if anyone *is* checking the network activity it will stick out like a sore thumb if you are doing.

(for example, noone at our office has a reason to be looking at Usenet. So when I did a network scan one day and found someone downloading lots of data with the Usenet protocol, I immediately got suspicious - and, indeed, it turned out to be BDSM porn vids)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

YIkes - I don't download anything except I guess pics that come with pages on ILX. Does that mean that there would be no red flags raised when I browse?

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:51 (twenty years ago)

I wouldnt be suprised if the CEO of my last job read some emails of people he was suspicious of. He was weir d like that. he made us all take personality tests and hand them in to him. I often dissed him in my emails, and I was laid off in summer. But I dont think thats why. then again...

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

Ok now i'm worrie dan may stop doing this at work. oh no I iwll die of boredom!

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

you've got to decide - is your life for enjoying or for sour suffering? keep up your fun.

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 20 November 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

Mike Han;e y I like your style.
Sorry for typos

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

(Nods proudly) - don't be ashamed ob typos

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 20 November 2005 09:29 (twenty years ago)

i think they notice if its a large network drain.

like the one guy at my mortgage company who was running kazaa on his system.

― kingfish hobo juckie (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 20 November 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

OK I posted this question from at home last night, now I've been at work ten minutes and here I am - if they'd give me some work this would never happen!
Is ILX a 'large network drain'?

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

it's definitely sucking something.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 20 November 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

As mainly text, ILX is not likely to show up as a drain on resources. Try not to overdo it. Huge picture threads and NSFW threads especially.

The biggest danger comes if your supervisor suspects you are a problem worker who isn't meeting the demands of the job. This may trigger an enquiry into your computer-using habits. Then it could screw you.

― Aimless (Aimless), Sunday, 20 November 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

I figured ILX is good because it looks like a database of some kind. And since working in an office I have learnt the ever-useful ALT+TAB!
No-one suspects I am anything but THE PERFECT WORKER, I have a ridiculously angelic face.
I'm trying not to post on the annoying co-workers threads because I don't want to become that petty complainer, but it's in me, oh god it's in me....

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

what about online streaming radio? I like to listen to music a fair bit in this job, and frequently just leave it on. Is that a big network drain? I wouldn't have a clue.

― moley, Sunday, 20 November 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

I have a feeling that's a huge drain, in fact at one of my last job's, in quite a small firm (ie; no IT guys at all, and no-one keeping an eye on anything much!), one of my tasks was to figure out why our internet bill was out of control - I tracked it down to someone downloading music via limewire but realsied much later that my radio streaming probably contributed just as much to the excessive gigs being used.

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

I have a feeling that's a huge drain, in fact at one of my last jobs, in quite a small firm (ie; no IT guys at all, and no-one keeping an eye on anything much!), one of my tasks was to figure out why our internet bill was out of control - I tracked it down to someone downloading music via limewire but realsied much later that my radio streaming probably contributed just as much to the excessive gigs being used.

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

That's a shame, I likes me internet radio at work.

― moley, Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

It depends on the bitrate of the radio station you're listening to - although, regardless, if everyone in the company tried to do it at once there'd probably be a huge traffic logjam.

(that's one of the reasons why none of our desktop machines come with speakers. I don't know if headphones are actually banned, but noone ever tries to bring any in)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Me too - I did feel particularly bad about my usage because I was being lazy and would listen to the same station that was on in the next room, the local one, online because I couldn't hear it properly and my radio got terrible reception ....
(I wonder if accidentally posting the same post twice becaause it was taking ages and I decided to remove a stray apostrophe is a drain on resources!!)

― slacker, Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

It also depends on the kind of connection your organisation has. At a university with 8k staff and 18k students, what I DL is totally insignificant - but we are told not to DL MP3s and the like, so I limit that very much, and don't take the piss in general. The point about the company not caring until they want to go after you is true most of the time, I think.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

Good point Martin - I'm speaking as someone who is used to working for small companies with maybe one ADSL line per 10-15 people.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

my boss can read ilx or FT (or whatever) over my shoulder

her only comment ever is "i wish i knew how to have fun on the internet"

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 20 November 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 20 November 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Looking for fun on the internet? Don't know how? ILX can help you! ILX is a fun site full of great people who really know how to have a good time! What are you waiting for? Get with the fun internet scene now: get with ILX and start partying now, online, with people who love internet fun!

What about lo-fi mono streams from internet radio stations in the context of an organisation with 50 odd employees and 'puters? Is that cheeky? Could I check with my IT people? I suppose I should be asking them.

― moley, Sunday, 20 November 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

If your listening to radio while working is generally fine with them, then yeah, simply asking whether low-bitrate radio streams are OK seems a good idea. At least if you're comfortable with them checking your recent Internet activity to check the load the radioing imposes.

Disclaimer: I am not a sysadmin or anything like it, it just seems reasonable to me.

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Sunday, 20 November 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Somehow 'checking with our IT people' seems like 'asking to be checked up upon all the time to see what kind of work you're really doing'. But that's just me - perhaps you are a hard worker Moley. do you have a radio on at work anyway? I feel quite depressed about the lack of music here at this job, but putting my ipod on seems too rude somehow...

― slacker, Monday, 21 November 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

No, my workplace is very very quiet. Most of the time there is only the clicking of mouses. Radio would not be appreciated - my co-worker likes Xtian rock anyway! She wouldn't enjoy my combination of techno and heavy metal much. I do work very hard - too hard to do much browsing, hence a bit of music would be nice.

― moley, Monday, 21 November 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

this is really making me miss the job where our computers already had headphones and we were allowed to bring in cds! the boss would play the radio or his cds on a boombox on the other side of the room but didn't mind if we listened to whatever we wanted. at my current job we have NO music and NO internet privileges other than weather.com and mapquest.com. we used to have cnn.com, but they took that away. i often get paranoid about the fact that we use email like instant messenger, but then i think the company is too huge for anyone to care.

― tres letraj (tehresa), Monday, 21 November 2005 05:51 (twenty years ago)

they took away cnn!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 21 November 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)

it was the only thing that got me through the day!!!

:(((

― tres letraj (tehresa), Monday, 21 November 2005 05:56 (twenty years ago)

One day slackers willl rise up and take back the day!!!!!

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Monday, 21 November 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

Slackers Untie!

― slacker, Monday, 21 November 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

... tomorrow!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

yeah I'll, uh, get back to you on that one.
but I like the idea.

― slacker, Monday, 21 November 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

The only other two people who've been to ILX in the last month from my employer's net are somebody up in NYC on the 10/25 and somebody right here in HQ on 11/3! Only once each, though.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 21 November 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

eek! proof that you guys (gys) check up on us!
can you tell who they are, and what threads they looked at tombot?

― slacker, Monday, 21 November 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

I never read emails. Neither does my boss. We're the only ones with authority to do so. We just don't have the time (and it's also very blech, I don't want to know if you're talking to some random chick online about her ample boobies when your wife has just had a baby). Occasionally I have to check where a person has been on the internet if a supervisor is suspicious of goofing off when work could be done. Usually people don't have to worry unless they're sucking bandwidth (streaming radio or ILX picture threads, turn them off in your options). I don't think anyone is going to be interested in your personal emails, unless you're feeding company contacts to your friends in the same business.

― Rebekkah (burntbrat), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and my company can tell who you are and what threads you looked at, but not your password. Honestly, you'd have to be doing something very bad for them to care enough to research what threads you posted on and what you said.

xxpost

― Rebekkah (burntbrat), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

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