Google Docs now blocked?

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
sgoodmansen
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Google Docs now blocked?

#1

Post by sgoodmansen »

We use Google docs to keep "living" agendas for all of our meetings. Each person invited to the meeting is also given access to the Google Doc agenda for that meeting. In this wasy members can log in to the document and edit the agenda. The Exec Secretary can then print it out on sunday morning before the meeting and be sure that he has the latest changes. Also if the secretary is late or can't make it that day, the agenda can still be printed out before the meeting. The agenda is updated every week so that only one document per meeting and a a single pdf of the past minutes ever exists in Google Docs. We just started using it this way a couple of months ago and have found it to be very successful and we don't have to worry about e-mailing sensitive agendas around.

The problem is that last week as well as this week Google Docs was blocked from our access. We can still log in to Google, but as soon as we hit the documents link we get the blocked page website.

Who controls what pages get blocked and is there any way to reverse this?
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

stevegoodmansen wrote:Who controls what pages get blocked and is there any way to reverse this?
The filtering level determined by the stake president, scripts controlled by the GSD, and site categorization by a third-party called Websense all affect what pages are blocked.

See this post for more details.
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Mikerowaved
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#3

Post by Mikerowaved »

stevegoodmansen wrote:...and we don't have to worry about e-mailing sensitive agendas around.
Emailing sensitive documents definitely has its problems, but uploading sensitive information to a 3rd party server (even a "secure" server) might be forbidden by the church. I would make sure you have your Stake President's blessing before using Google Docs for this type of activity.
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jdlessley
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#4

Post by jdlessley »

stevegoodmansen wrote:The problem is that last week as well as this week Google Docs was blocked from our access. We can still log in to Google, but as soon as we hit the documents link we get the blocked page website.

Who controls what pages get blocked and is there any way to reverse this?
We should probably ask from what computer system are you accessing the internet? Alan made the assumption you are using Church administrative computers in his response.

If you are not using a Church administrative computer then you may need to look at any Internet filtering software or hardware. If you could provide more information about what systems you are using and how they connect to the internet may help.

I just accessed Google Docs from my home computer and noticed no problems. From that I assume there is no problems with Google Docs itself.
JD Lessley
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russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

jdlessley wrote:We should probably ask from what computer system are you accessing the internet? Alan made the assumption you are using Church administrative computers in his response.
I don't think it's an Admin computer issue as much as it is using broadband at church.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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sgoodmansen
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#6

Post by sgoodmansen »

The problem is accessing Google Docs from the church computer. We have 'extended access' to the internet and Google Docs just recently started getting blocked.
jdlessley
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#7

Post by jdlessley »

stevegoodmansen wrote:The problem is accessing Google Docs from the church computer. We have 'extended access' to the internet and Google Docs just recently started getting blocked.
This could be a temporary condition as the categorization of sites has known to suddenly change in the recent past. Since there is no way of knowing whether the change is permanent or not you may want to speak to your stake technology specialist and have him counsel with the stake president about getting the filtering level changed to the least restrictive level, General Access. This is quite similar to the filtering available in family history centers.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
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aebrown
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#8

Post by aebrown »

jdlessley wrote:This could be a temporary condition as the categorization of sites has known to suddenly change in the recent past.
It can also happen that a site that uses multiple domains to display its web pages is changed to use a new domain, which hasn't been categorized. In that case (particularly with a popular site like Google Docs), Websense will categorize the new domain soon and it will start working again.
Bethuel-p40
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Stake Presidency & Google Docs

#9

Post by Bethuel-p40 »

I am the Stake Clerk and the Stake Presidency in our Stake uses Google Docs to keep track of callings and releasing's in the Stake every time we meet. We are debating going to General Access just to add this one website since not having access to this site is such a huge road block to us. But of course that would not be the ideal solution since the whole building would be on General Access. If they would just add this one website it would solve a lot of problems.

I hope this get's worked out soon.
ericpe
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#10

Post by ericpe »

We've been using Google documents, especially spreadsheets to track Stake Presidency appointments (our Stake President uses it too, so I know he approves of it), for well over two years now. We just got connected to the Internet this past week in our Stake Center, and though we had chosen the extended access (which is the most permissive filtering option) we were disappointed to find that Google Docs was being blocked. I called the global service desk just yesterday, and they said it should not be blocking Google Docs at all. It's interesting to find out that we're not alone. The service tech on the line thought there must be a problem with our firewall, and I didn't know at the time that others were having the same problem. Anyway, they started a trouble ticket and are supposed to resolve it. I'll let you all know what happens.
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