Have they banned Facebook at work? We show you how to get around it, but we can't say the same for Mark Zuckerberg's court case...

Facebook, ahh. Tis the home to the bored, the socially confused and those who have a pressing need to relive last nights photos/stalk various men/make arrangements with friends. The Facebook and other social networking sites have never been more popular with polls showing that 52% of office workers spend a large portion of their day logging on and browsing, and possibly not 'maximising their full office potential' (jargon speak from the ad men). To counter this some evil genius's have decided to ban such sites on work/school servers, to try and keep their staff focused on the job at hand, after all who wants to do spreadsheets when they can poke, X me or update their status?

So we at Shiny Shiny have researched just how you can get around those annoying firewalls, and log on to your beloved sights, without (and this is key) getting you fired. Welcome to the wonderful world of proxy servers, which let you access the sites you want via an intermediary; and means your web addresses won't show that you've been on the banned websites. There are a plethora of sites offering this to you, but we've picked our top three for you to use. Let us know what results you get!

Number 1. Proxystation

This site is one of the proxy Daddies, having at least thirty links to various codes that let you get onto social networking, but you may feel slightly overwhelmed at the quantity of resources it offers. Whatever tech genius has set up your system, there will be something there you can use to defeat it, but it may take a little browsing to get there.

Number 2. Class Ref

This is a basic site, but its appeal is in the simplicity; you just type in the desired web address and off you go. Primarily geared towards schoolchildren, the emphasis seems to be on accessing Bebo and MySpace, but it does allow you to see Facebook too.

Number 3.Proxy List 100

Basically, 200 proxy servers (the liars!), listed in order of ease, user friendly style and interesting graphics. I like the little pictures they have next to the top 25 as well.

Of course the beloved Facebook may soon be obsolete if Mark Zuckerberg loses his case against ConnectU, but I don't see that happening , do you? Til then, be happy in logging on and be assured your Internet searches are safely unmonitored; just check there's no one looking behind your shoulder.

Like that? Read this: Facebook/Face off I Is a drunken poke as bad as a drunken grope?