Updater and Web Filtering

So as I mentioned in the general discussion forum my workplace recently blocked the portableapps.com domain via dns web filtering. Now while this hinders my ability to browse the site normally, there are ways to get around it.

What I can't get around however is how this breaks the updater. Since I can't change the domain it looks up to a flat IP (bypassing DNS) or point it at an SSH tunnel proxy there's no way for me to use the updater at work.

Interestingly enough the updater doesn't report anything in the way of an error. Instead it just brings up a blank blank window where apps to be updated would normally be listed and allows me to click next, and tells me my apps are up to date. Going to X:\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\Data\Update.ini yields me a text file with HTML headers and formatting which is basically the page that pops up when you bump heads with the web filter. I realize there's probably no way to get around this but the lack of an error might be something worth looking into?