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I'm currently working in a bank, and while about 99.7% of the internet is blocked, Stack Exchange thankfully isn't (yet) however imgur is.

It means I can't view images posted alongside questions. The only workaround I have found is to search Google images for the URL, but you get a tiny thumbnail image which is a bit useless.

Does anybody know any clever tricks for viewing the images accompanying questions when you are somewhere where imgur is blocked?

Are there any plans to route the images stored on imgur through a Stack Exchange URL?

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14
  • VPN, web proxy, Ultrasurf Circumventing your corporate firewall could get you in trouble though. Perhaps you could explain the sysadmins why you need access to imgur?
    – Stijn
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 15:35
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    Unfortunately, there's not much you can do that wouldn't violate your company's policies, except try to get that changed. Being familiar with that situation, I suspect that's highly unlikely.
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 15:35
  • hmph as I feared. Was asking on the off-chance there may be something clever on StackApps that I had missed, or something similar. Thanks!
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 15:41
  • Probably not a solution to your problem, but are you able to check using another browser? When at the office, I am unable to see imgur images when using Chrome, but Firefox works, and I think IE works too but I don't use it enough to be sure of that.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:23
  • @psubsee2003 Interesting... could it be due to the computer's default Internet proxy settings, and maybe Firefox doesn't use them?
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:25
  • Nah tested on any browser I can get running, I get that lovely websense blocked page when I try and visit the site itself, thanks guys, will run with @Wont's suggestion but not holding my breath!
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:26
  • @AndrewBarber I haven't cared enough to investigate, but I don't get live updates on Chrome either, but do get it on Firefox. But I do get other proxy messages through Firefox (such as other blocked sites), so I'm not sure that is the case. I've actually assumed it was a local, browser specific issue.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:29
  • I discovered a simple solution! Don't use the internet there!
    – Cole Tobin
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:07
  • What @ColeJohnson said. Tether your phone, connect, voila.
    – gitsitgo
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:19
  • @gitsitgo To do that I would need to open up the computer and physically re-connect the front USB ports (the two on the MB are used for keyboard/mouse), then work out how to get around the Windows restrictions currently applying to the back ones, they might not be too cool with that to be honest!
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:32
  • @JMK Yeah that sounds difficult, my bad, I assumed your desktop could go on wireless.
    – gitsitgo
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:40
  • @gitsitgo Nope, i gather it's a fairly common setup in banks with PCI etc which I fully understand but thanks for the suggestion! :)
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:44
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    one fairly clever trick that comes to mind is 1) find job-relevant question(s) with job-relevant image(s) 2) escalate through official channels request to whitelist http://i.stack.imgur.com/ justifying this by the fact that blocking it puts an obstacle in performing your job function
    – gnat
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 21:26
  • @gnat totally, however I am sub-contracted into the bank and our work web-mail is also blocked, and I have been trying to fix that, so I don't fancy my chances but worth a try :)
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 21:57

2 Answers 2

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33

I suggest you ask that they carve out a hole for i.stack.imgur.com in the firewall.

It's too bad, because this is a pretty funny picture.

enter image description here

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  • You've given me something to look forward to for when I get home, it better be funny!
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:23
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    You are mean, Won't. Very, very mean. Oh; and that's a good answer, because that might be specific enough for their IT folks to consider.
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 16:24
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    @AndrewBarber he Won't care how people feel ;) punpunpunpun
    – Cole Tobin
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:08
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    @ColeJohnson Yes he Will ;) punpunpunpun!!!
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:09
  • @Wont Home now, image indeed funny, you got lucky!
    – JMK
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:35
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    This is basically what happens at my work. Imgur is blocked, I.stack.imgur is fine.
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 23:17
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There is an option for this, but it takes work.

  1. Write a user script that looks for *.imgur.com images, cranks up a JSONP request to a server you have, which fetches said images and returns urls to them. (Or, CORS, if you aren't restricted to old browsers)
  2. Upon getting the list of images back, rewrite the image URLs in the current document, now served by something you can actually access

This is heavily dependent on you being able to poke a hole for something other than Imgur at the great corporate nannywall, but might be easier than asking for a loosely moderated image hosting site to be allowed (thinking in devil's advocate mode).

The other option is to come to work dressed up as a Nyan cat in protest until they relax policies, but that could lead to unexpected results.

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  • Why the JSONP or CORS? Why not rewrite to one's own server URLs right away? (And have that server proxy the images when requested.)
    – Arjan
    Commented May 22, 2014 at 22:30

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