Internet Spying....

[Darrell O'Neill]

Whilst sat here browsing the boardroom and charging someone a hansome hourly rate for the pleasure it got me thinking, do companies log and record what there guests are viewing on their free Wifi they provide?

[Mooch]

I shall call the webmaster at www.Ikissyourwhip.co.uk and find out if they recorded your visit this afternoon

[FILFAN]

Sounds like your worried they will discover your guilty pleasures

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Oh yes, know him them well do you? ??? :laugh:

[Darrell O'Neill]

Oi.... I mean browsing WSCC when Im supposed to be using the Wifi for ordering materials... lol

[Kevin Jones]

Good page here on employee monitoring, normally you would expect to be told that monitoring takes place but not necessarily under all circumstances. If you accessing as a 'Guest' I don't know how that changes things but I would assume the worst case personally.

[johngill]

Seen people sacked for it normally gambling or porn sites expect most IT departments can track browsing probaly set up for certain activities.

[Tonsko]

It's well within their technical ability to do so - whether they actually *do* log or not is something you will have to find out. What would work in your favour - a generic 'guest' account, so any potential browsing could not be linked to you (although could maybe do so with an IP address, but would be a rigmarole to *prove* it was you if using DHCP). If you are given a specific login, then that is not so good. This would then come back to whether they actually log anything, or even look at the logs if they do record activity!

If you're working for an SME, chances are they won't. If you're working for a blue chip, chances are they will.

HTH.

[FILFAN]

Oh yes, know him them well do you? ??? :laugh:

:blush: :blush:

[Blatman]

It's well within their technical ability to do so - whether they actually *do* log or not is something you will have to find out. What would work in your favour - a generic 'guest' account, so any potential browsing could not be linked to you (although could maybe do so with an IP address, but would be a rigmarole to *prove* it was you if using DHCP). If you are given a specific login, then that is not so good. This would then come back to whether they actually log anything, or even look at the logs if they do record activity!

If you're working for an SME, chances are they won't. If you're working for a blue chip, chances are they will.

HTH.

Surely they'd need a MAC address to match with the IP address to nail it down to a specific users machine, depending on how often the DHCP addresses are "recycled" and if user logins are logged to a permanent record somewhere. It's easy enough to look at DHCP bindings but without a list of which mac address belongs to which machine (especially "guests") it's not going to be easy... unless I'm missing something...

The blue chip I worked for monitored for sites specifically banned or deemed inappropriate. Monitoring 5000+ folks on one site for *all* their internet browsing habits would be difficult...

[Dodgey]

In several of the places that I ran IT I monitored staff browsing. I could see a complete history, or , more commonly, would be alerted if they went to porn sites. Having complete records is bulky and cumbersome to deal with.

Also, when sites , or types of sites are blocked, I was alerted when attempts were made to access them.

I used software that would easily monitor 1000's of people's browsing habits, but again, it highlighted problem users and then you could focus on those individuals.

Other companies I was at didn't care.

All the software I used resolved the ip addresses to computer names (windows computer name) so dhcp was never an issue.

As for you using their wifi... If you are not an employee then they won't know who you are unless they are very thorough and look for your name in your browsing data trail. Very unlikely. The software I used recorded browsing history...I.e. sites visited, not the actual page content, so it didn't log what you typed as a user.

There certainly is software that will do that but you are more likely to find that in very sensitive environments.

[Blatman]

All the software I used resolved the ip addresses to computer names (windows computer name) so dhcp was never an issue.

One reason why I never name my computers with anything too specific

I'm still surprised by just how many people give their computers names that reveal too much. One sniffed master browser anouncement and it could all go horribly wrong

[Dodgey]

One reason why I never name my computers with anything too specific

I'm still surprised by just how many people give their computers names that reveal too much. One sniffed master browser anouncement and it could all go horribly wrong

This is in a business mind you - so you could have a PC called 100A7B and I'd still know which user it was - but for an individual - you are right - name it something abstract! - Same goes for your wifi. I see people name theirs "Virgin-Davis" or "Sky27" - both of them tell me the provider, which tells me the probability of their router - which makes hacking their wifi possibly very easy :-)

[Blatman]

I suspect Darrell named his own PC

I have often seen PC's named with the same ID as the asset tag which seems to be a reasonable approach but again I'd prefer to see some separation.

Don't get me started on wifi security and the difference between network security and host security. Retail customers almost never get it... *sigh*

[Norman Verona]

If they did you would be out of a job.