Blocking Instant Messengers?

Michael Mattes asks: "I have been looking for a set of ports/subnets to block in order to disable instant messengers behind my firewall. While MSN is easy to block, ICQ is a little more difficult and it seems as though Yahoo Messenger is designed to do everything possible to not be blocked. I have been reading more and more articles showing companies choosing to block these tools. It seems irresponsible of Yahoo to leave, what appears to me, no choice but to block their entire domain in this situation. Any help would be appreciated."

Comments

huh?

[battjt]

You're trying to do what? Not allow users to one resource on the net, but allow them to others. It wont work. If I can buy a book from Amazon, I can connect SSL to most anywhere and proxy anything I want over that (I am proxying VNC/SSH/HTTP/SSL right now through an extremely restrictive firewall so I can read my personal/business email.).

Would it be easier to replace the workers who are abusing their net privleges with better workers or software than to try to constrain them into a position where they can only do work? (Maybe I'm not the one who should be promoting this...see above activity.)

Joe

It's the wrong solutiong anyway...

[torinth]

Trying to block communications technologically is attacking the problem at the wrong level. Instant messaging can be a great benefit to work for alot of people, because it allows for a very quick exchange of information. He can ask an old co-worker for help or his ideas on a problem, or his wife can tell him to stop and get milk on the way home. If the worker doesn't have IM, he'll probably just use email or a phone anyway - and it sucks up a lot more time to write a full email or make a phone call than it does to IM "MathWhizz42" with "What's 2+2?".

If your users really shouldn't be using IM, it's time to just pay attention to what they're doing on the job. If they skip out on work to chat on IM, they're probably quite likely to be blowing time reading Slashdot or playing Hearts, too.

Employees are alot like kids - don't try to install all kind of technological gadgets to try to stop them from doing things - they'll always find a way around it. Try just paying attention to them directly instead. Employees are not "set it and forget it" things.

-Andrew

Easy

[bellings]

You block Instant Messenger Exactly the same way you block innappropriate phone calls and abuse of the company's internal mail system. You make a company policy that says "don't do this bad thing", and then your managers enforce the policy using exactly the same methods they use to enforce all the other policies.

You can find all sorts of technical solutions for social problems, but they usually cause more trouble than the problem you're trying to solve.

You don't need a course in "FireWall 101." You need a course in "Business Management 101." It's a pretty good bet you won't find any help on SlashDot for that.