Getting around firewalls/filters

[ElevenBravo]

Greetings,

Sorry if the answer to this is somewhere obvious, I checked the faq but didn't see anything about it.

I am going to be deployed overseas soon, but will have internet access. So, I'd like to be able to play online poker in my downtime as much as possible... but I know that military networks use some sort of blocking software to prevent you from going to any website thats basically interesting in any way that is non-military related (e.g. facebook.com will get you a big "Access Denied" page displayed).

You might or might not be thinking "oh, MILITARY software, thats probably lock-tight! you're screwed" but I have a feeling that it, like everything in the armed forces, is more of a joke. And I'm assuming that they use key words in the URL title and on the page itself to determine what category the website falls into and whether or not to block it.

My question to anyone with knowledge in this area is, would a poker client, which just connects to an IP address (right?) likely still trigger a block? And even if so, is there some way I could mask it or get around it? I really don't want to have to go a year without playing.

Thanks for any help.

[mjws00]

Your connection to the site will show up all over their logs, even if the connection isn't explicitly disallowed. I don't know the rules, but expect there is more than just an http filter in place.

You may find some type of proxy service that will get you there, but the bottom line is if you are headed out through their firewall (and you are) they know what you are doing. You have to connect to somewhere and they can see that. Whether they care or have resources to check up on you is another matter.

Good luck,

Mike