My organization's proxy blocks, and they refuse to lift that block.

Is there any way for me to work around that to see screenshots and images users post in questions? While most questions don't include images, the entire meaning of other questions is based on those images.

That's a real shame. is probably one of the safest image domains there is, unless their real motivation is that they don't believe you need it for work-related reasons, or that they simply lack motivation altogether. –  Robert Harvey Jun 24 at 19:48
Open a Google Drive document, add an image from a url. It's bad, but it's what I do. –  gunr2171 Jun 24 at 19:49
@gunr2171: Not much help for images that are already posted by other users. –  Robert Harvey Jun 24 at 19:50
I'm curious why they have that block in place o.O –  Cerbrus Jun 24 at 19:53
@RobertHarvey, as long as the post has an image url (not a link to a page with an image on it), this will work, no matter who posted it. You just have to view the source of the post to get the url. –  gunr2171 Jun 24 at 19:54
@gunr2171: I think you're missing the point. Most people don't post images that way. –  Robert Harvey Jun 24 at 19:56
@Cerbrus: It's probably a block for the entire domain. –  Robert Harvey Jun 24 at 19:58
@RobertHarvey, ok (as much as I don't want to argue), the normal way people post images is with the "image" editor button, which puts markdown in the post and a url (for i.stack.imgur) at the bottom. So I notice there is a screenshot missing, open up the post for edit, and get the url from the bottom. –  gunr2171 Jun 24 at 20:00
@gunr2171: The url will contain an link, 99 percent of the time. What? –  Robert Harvey Jun 24 at 20:01
@RobertHarvey, and that's fine. Adding an image by url (even an link) in google docs will go around a proxy. –  gunr2171 Jun 24 at 20:03
Have you considered seeking employment elsewhere...sounds like you're working for tyrants...! –  JRG-Developer Jun 24 at 23:47
@gunr2171 how about posting that as an answer, it sounds like the best solution (simplest, safest, most likely to work, least likely to end in a disciplinary tribunal...). Make it clear that it works by Google's server downloading the image from imgur, then you accessing the image from Google's servers, which are (hopefully!) not blocked. –  user568458 Jun 25 at 14:02
What about changing the DNS for that domain on the local machine if allowed? –  JeromeJ Jun 25 at 14:03
It's probably safe to assume that if is blocked, the user doesn't have any admin rights beyond the bare essentials. –  user568458 Jun 25 at 14:05
Stack Overflow needs to employ these blocks so people can see why link-only answers are so highly frowned upon. –  BoltClock Jun 25 at 16:46

4 Answers 4

You can quickly see the images using the Google Image Search thumbnails, which come from Google's server. Hopefully your employer hasn't blocked Google!

Then, if there's an image you need in more detail, you may be able to do the Google Docs trick in gunr2171's answer on this page to see the full thing.

This is ideal if you can't muck about with proxies, DNS routing, etc due to company policies or privilege restrictions (which is very likely if imgur's blocked).

The downsides are, it only works for questions old enough to have been indexed by google, so it might not work for questions or updates less than, say, an hour old, and it only gives a 225px x 225px thumbnail. So, fine for research if you don't need fine detail, but not so good for answering new questions.

  • Copy the URL of the question page
  • Prepend site: and paste it into Google Image Search
  • You'll get thumbnails of all the images on that page, from Google's server, or as base64 JPG/PNG data written into the source of the (Google-origin) page.

For example using a graphic design question with some of images (I realise this image won't help the asker until this page is indexed...):

enter image description here

...the images are coming from Google, not from the original (blocked) source.

I posted a full answer. –  gunr2171 Jun 25 at 15:38

If you're running a browser that supports Greasemonkey and you're able to get to an open proxy service, you should be able to write a page script that munges all the imgur URLs.

I found someone on reddit with a similar problem that posted a script that might work.

If a company is blocking certain websites, they will certainly be aggressively blocking all external proxy services. It is also probably strictly against company policy to try to use an external proxy. –  Ian Goldby Jun 25 at 11:57
It's also probably not just a request URL filter. –  Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 25 at 12:33
It's probably also against company policy to try to circumvent restrictions like this. –  Chris Jun 25 at 13:47
@Ian Goldby: It's also possible it's just a standard setting of the browser content filter, and the network admin does not know what he does or that this setting blocks SO. –  Quandary Jun 26 at 15:06

You can use FoxyProxy (also exists for Chrome) and do a SSH port forwarding to your machine at home ;)

To create the tunnel:

ssh -D 8080

Then you use FoxyProxy to connect FireFox/Chrome to your local port 8080 (if you have no admin rights, use a Port > 10'000).

If port 22 (SSH) is blocked, you can set the SSH daemon at home to listen at the SSL port, that almost always works, at least for me ;)

You can also tell Firefox to use the proxy for DNS-resolution already ;)

For Windows, you need PUTTY for the SSH tunnel:

That's much safer than using a PUBLIC proxy that can't be trusted (those cursed moments when you forget to switch the proxy off), and you can switch it on/off in an instant.

Also, if you connect to the SSH server, use the IP instead of the servername, that way DNS-blocking will not be able to stop you.
If you have no admin rights, use PortableApps (for both Firefox and PuTTY, Chrome doesn't need admin rights for installation).

All the network admin will see is a SSL connection to your home server IP.
That's much safer anyway.
No more monitoring of your browsing activity, no more blocked sites, no more traces.
Everything is encrypted.

Beware - trying to use an external proxy will probably be against your company policy, and might be a disciplinary offence. –  Ian Goldby Jun 25 at 11:58
+1 for mentioning ssh tunneling. –  Sreenath S Jun 25 at 12:00
@Ian Goldby: Yep, for risks and side effects, read the package leaflet and ask your doctor or pharmacist (or lawyer). Though I very much doubt any company other than a big bank/multinational with illegal activities does actually have such a policy. –  Quandary Jun 25 at 12:02
I work in a large multinational energy company that has such a policy. I believe it is pretty standard practice in large companies and has nothing to do with trying to hide illegal activity. I suspect the usual reason is to prevent drive-by browser exploits and time-wasting. (eBay is completely blocked where I work. I suspect people have been caught in the past trying to run an eBay business during work hours.) –  Ian Goldby Jun 25 at 12:13
Tunnelling out through a firewall is an obvious security risk and will be prohibited by all but the most hippy IT departments. –  Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 25 at 12:34
@IanGoldby, yeah, part of the boilerplate techo-babble T&Cs. I'd say a lot of companies have it even if they don't realise it or enforce it. –  indivisible Jun 25 at 13:39

The trick I use is loading the image in Google Docs. It's time consuming, but it works. Here are the steps to use:

  1. Edit the post so you can see the source. Grab the image url (either inline or at the bottom of the post.
  2. Open a Google Document, preferably a Word Document.
  3. In the "Insert" menu, choose "Image". enter image description here
  4. On the left menu, choose "By Url", then paste the url in the box. If all goes well, you will see the image. You can insert it into the document to see it larger. enter image description here

Bewarned about links that don't go to i.stack.imgur. If the link goes to a page that contains the image, then this trick won't work. Then you just have to wait until you get home.

The reason why this works is because it's Google's servers that are downloading the picture, which can get to the sites that are blocked for you.

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea there was a way to see the images while I'm at work, this is really nice. –  pixelmeow Jun 25 at 19:33 is blocked for me too, so this won't work. –  David Crowell Jun 25 at 20:33
Haha, good one. Now about that HTML pages [...] ;) –  Quandary Jun 26 at 15:08
It is kind of ironical that your steps include pictures hosted at imgur. –  Shedal Sep 24 at 11:27
@Shedal, yo dawg, I herd you like unblocking photos, so I put some photos in my post about unblocking photos so you can practice while you learn! Also, stack's imgur is the best place to put images, as they don't 404 after a while. –  gunr2171 Sep 24 at 12:21
@gunr2171 it's just that these images are part of your instructions for seeing imgur images. People who would follow these instructions don't yet see the images. So having them there doesn't make much sense. –  Shedal Sep 24 at 16:05
@Shedal, agreed that it's sort of backwards, but the text instructions should be enough. The images are just reinforcing the written steps. If you want to add more text to make it more clear, go for it! –  gunr2171 Sep 24 at 16:21
@gunr2171 I simply pointed out the irony. –  Shedal Sep 24 at 20:09

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