Not so long ago, as employers took on younger people, they also appear to take on their habits. Many young employees believed (still do) that when they start to work for an employer they can take their surfing habits with them. At every opportunity they would use the company computer to access their Friendster account, login to Facebook or find what the latest big video was on YouTube. Obviously, their employers did not like this.



The result was that employers blocked certain URLs. This wasn't difficult because the vast majority of companies use an intranet system, so all they had to do was block the server from accessing these websites. As company networks became more sophisticated it was even possible to identify the computer from which the Friendster login attempt originated.

Universities and colleges soon followed, and it finally became obvious that private computers, or at least those operated by private concerns such as educational and government establishments, and businesses, were no longer willing to tolerate their staff using their computers or terminals to access social networking sites. Friendster login was refused, and those of other social networking sites.

This seemed unfair to many, and still does, because such sites are a means of communication just as cell phones are, and many use Twitter for example to send small messages to their friends. So what was the answer?

Simple when you think of it. The colleges and employers and whoever else blocks the URLs you visit, can only see one deep. So, if you visit a website that is not blocked, your company's server won't block you. You can log on to that site. Now, take it a step further. If you now use that website to log on to another website, your firm or college's spying software can't see that. It still thinks you are on the original innocuous website. Nobody except you knows that you are actually logged on to Friendster.

In basic terms, when it is used to log on to Facebook it is known as a Facebook proxy, and it can also be used as a Friendster login. A search box on another website can be used as a proxy to enable you to access any other website at all. It need not be YouTube, Friendster or, but any URL you want to access.

The problem with proxy sites is that once they have been used for a period of time, they are found, and that URL is then added to the list of banned sites. "Banned" does not mean that you should not access them: it means that you CANNOT access them. They too are blocked from you in the same way that a Friendster login is blocked.

That is why you need a regular source of proxy sites - finding one by accident seems great because you can log on to Friendster, and that Facebook proxy is allowing you to contact your buddies from work, but it won't last. Once it has been blocked then what do you do?

Better by far to find a website that offers a free Friendster login or a Facebook proxy that you can rely upon. Such sites will carry out checks on the proxies they offer, and change them when they have been found out. You will always have a tried and tested proxy that works.