[digibri]

Though I've never worked for the large local telecom here in town I've had many friends and coworkers who have. I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard a story just like this (though smaller in scope). People have set up file sharing servers, game servers, whole warez team back ends...the works on hardware that was purchased & set up but never used. This is one of the primary reasons I've never wanted to work for Big Local Telco...

[tanzam75]

I worked with someone who got fired for hosting MP3s on a surplus corporate machine.

At least, that was the excuse they used when they fired him. I think the actual reason was that he was hard to get along with. However, it's difficult to fire him for that reason. Much easier to fire him over misuse of corporate equipment.

The guy told everyone about his MP3 server. Including summer interns.

[UVB-76]

> [...] whole warez team back ends

Are you able to elaborate on this? I've always wondered how the warez scene functioned; residential Internet connections are obviously insufficient, hacked resources too risky, and warez groups turn their nose up at any form of legitimate resources (e.g. dedi/colo hosting)

This leaves corporate infrastructure. All it takes is a small IT team with a big budget, lots of hardware and network resources, and management who neither know nor care how their resources are being utilized.

It's terribly romantic.

[Spooky23]

I know that my past employers networks have been abused for long periods for game servers and MP3 hosting. Y2K period in particular resulted in lots of insane investments in IT, with very lax management in most places. Nowadays, tools and copyright take downs make it difficult to be completely inept.

Hacked resources are used as well. I worked at a place that used an old SGI Indy as a mail relay. It wasn't really managed, and somebody rooted it to use as a distribution server for warez and porn. I suspect the admins kept it running as a source for their own warez and porn needs.

I got involved when a spammer got in and sent millions of emails, flooding our puny T1 with bounces.

[lostlogin]

Has anyone worked anywhere that didn't have a bit of a server that was dedicated to piracy? I haven't. Even working for a large public healthcare provider. Slightly worse, there was even a torrent client using their fibre. The trick was to find an IT illiterate colleague or one who was leaving it best of all, both these things in one person. Their logins wouldn't e revoked for months or years. Use their login to set up torrent clients. If you called IT support and just played dumb you always found someone who would let you install stuff (I need this program for my section on ankle casting). Keep calling back until they answer. Once a torrent was running, stay well away from the computer until no one else is around as grumpy IT guys would hang round to try and catch you. This was long ago now, I pay for my media now, with the exception of a few shows from the UK which I can't pay for.