Block Quake Live to Boost Office Productivity
Quake Live just launched into public beta, likely putting extra strain on your small office network and productivity. The free first-person shooter is based on the classic Quake III Arena, but now it runs inside a web browser. It's perfect for slacking off on nearly any PC, and when I finish this post, I'm going to jump into the fray. But if your employees can't wait to finish their work before playing, here's how to block access to the game.
Your Internet connection is full of software ports, virtual strands isolated for specific communications. Email access, FTP, instant messaging, and other Internet activities default to a certain port. Web traffic uses port 80, but Quake Live works through port 27960 even though it lives in a web browser; just block this port to leave other Internet services unaffected. (As this post went live, I wasn't able to verify the port as the initial surge of rabid players put me in an hours-long line.)
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