URLs with tildes blocked by firewall

[Smith JA (Jack)]

  I have a query for the Chemistry-Internet community at-large, but
particularly for industrial sites.  Our corporate IT department recently
completed the installation of a firewall/proxy for all Internet traffic
and one of the "protections" they have implemented is a filtering
process that prohibits access to certain URLs (sites) - some explicitly
and others by somewhat generic rules.  One such generic rule is the the
presence of a tilde (~) in the URL.   Tilde's are often used as a
shortcut representation of a home directory (particularly on Unix
systems).  For some reason our IT department considers such sites as
inappropriate for business/research purposes. It now take VP approval to
unblock such sites.  Has anyone else heard of, experienced, or fully
understand such a policy?

  [This message was multi-posted, please pardon any duplication]



- Jack

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 Jack A. Smith             ||
 Union Carbide             || Phone:  (304) 747-5797
 Catalyst Skill Center     || FAX:    (304) 747-5571
 P.O. Box 8361             || 
 S. Charleston, WV  25303  || smithja at ucarb.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


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