Help with History---Please!!!

[Guest]

I have a rather sticky situation that I need assistance with.

While helping my daughter with a school research project, I noticed that my
son had visited some sites that are of a questionable nature. When I
confronted him about this, he told me that he did not go to any such sites.
When my husband returned from being out of town (for the week), I went to
show him what I had seen in the history. But, the history and cookies had
been erased. My husband feels that I am probably making a bigger deal out of
this, and that the sites probably weren't all that bad anyway.

So, for my first question...Is there a place where I can still retrieve the
sites visited even though the cookies and history files have been deleted
(maybe there is a location, etc. that my teenager doesn't know about). This
is important to show my husband the activity and places visited--I'm not
over-reacting, and I want to prove it.

Furthermore, when I asked about the sites to my son, and he said that he
never went to any such places, and he told me that someone must have just
gotten onto our computer (since we utilize the internet via a wireless
router), etc.

So, for my second question...Is there any way possible that someone else
could have utilized our connection to visit the sites in question, regardless
of how remote the possibility is?

Thirdly...Does the activity in the history record acurately record the sites
visited by that computer? Could the log be generated any other way, ie. such
as through cookies, email, etc.,--please list any possible ways regardless of
how remote the possibility is.

I really would like to give the benefit of doubt to my son; but, with the
bit I know about computers, it is my understanding that if there is activity
in the history log, then it was visited by someone deliberately clicking on a
site or link (in the case of pictures, etc.).

Is this not the case? If there is any other explanation, please, please let
me know.

Please answer all of the above questions, as each one has its own importance
to the well-being of our family.

Thank you.

 

[db]

hello worried mom,

in this day of age, if your computers
are not fully setup with protection,
any suspicious scenario is possible and
highly likely.

some websites that provide general,
useful and otherwise safe information, may also have hidden
links to questionable websites and may
even have advertisements to visit them or links
like "lets visit Minnie mouse", when in actuality
it will not take the user to Disney land.

Anything that appears on the computer screen is a
result of all that information being downloaded to your pc,
including hyperlinks, subwebpages, icons, pics, etc...

in my opinion it would be a waste of
your time trying to find proof of what
you discovered. Anything that you may
have found was likely pushed down onto your pc,
rather than willfully accessed by your son.

you might want to install those cyber nanny
programs. I think Disney.com has some
recommendations as well. But be careful
that as you don't inadvertently go to
dizney land.com which could be a
location in china's red light district.

Believing in what your son should
take 100% precedence over a websites
that are doing everything they can
to corrupt and gain your child's attention and
money. Make sure he hear this from you.

- db
I have a rather sticky situation that I need assistance with.

While helping my daughter with a school research project, I noticed that my
son had visited some sites that are of a questionable nature. When I
confronted him about this, he told me that he did not go to any such sites.
When my husband returned from being out of town (for the week), I went to
show him what I had seen in the history. But, the history and cookies had
been erased. My husband feels that I am probably making a bigger deal out of
this, and that the sites probably weren't all that bad anyway.

So, for my first question...Is there a place where I can still retrieve the
sites visited even though the cookies and history files have been deleted
(maybe there is a location, etc. that my teenager doesn't know about). This
is important to show my husband the activity and places visited--I'm not
over-reacting, and I want to prove it.

Furthermore, when I asked about the sites to my son, and he said that he
never went to any such places, and he told me that someone must have just
gotten onto our computer (since we utilize the internet via a wireless
router), etc.

So, for my second question...Is there any way possible that someone else
could have utilized our connection to visit the sites in question, regardless
of how remote the possibility is?

Thirdly...Does the activity in the history record acurately record the sites
visited by that computer? Could the log be generated any other way, ie. such
as through cookies, email, etc.,--please list any possible ways regardless of
how remote the possibility is.

I really would like to give the benefit of doubt to my son; but, with the
bit I know about computers, it is my understanding that if there is activity
in the history log, then it was visited by someone deliberately clicking on a
site or link (in the case of pictures, etc.).

Is this not the case? If there is any other explanation, please, please let
me know.

Please answer all of the above questions, as each one has its own importance
to the well-being of our family.

Thank you.

 

[SmoothNinjaGirl]

to me it sounds like a normal teenager..
and to if the history was deleted and past visited sites.. he has
deleted them on purpose. i dont see anyone using your connection to
visit those sites.. hmm.. there are parental programs.. but nothing is
foolproof. just keep an eye to when your son is online.. kids are
gonna be kids though.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a rather sticky situation that I need assistance with.

While helping my daughter with a school research project, I noticed that
my
son had visited some sites that are of a questionable nature. When I
confronted him about this, he told me that he did not go to any such
sites.
When my husband returned from being out of town (for the week), I went to
show him what I had seen in the history. But, the history and cookies had
been erased. My husband feels that I am probably making a bigger deal out
of
this, and that the sites probably weren't all that bad anyway.

So, for my first question...Is there a place where I can still retrieve
the
sites visited even though the cookies and history files have been deleted
(maybe there is a location, etc. that my teenager doesn't know about).
This
is important to show my husband the activity and places visited--I'm not
over-reacting, and I want to prove it.

Furthermore, when I asked about the sites to my son, and he said that he
never went to any such places, and he told me that someone must have just
gotten onto our computer (since we utilize the internet via a wireless
router), etc.

So, for my second question...Is there any way possible that someone else
could have utilized our connection to visit the sites in question,
regardless
of how remote the possibility is?

Thirdly...Does the activity in the history record acurately record the
sites
visited by that computer? Could the log be generated any other way, ie.
such
as through cookies, email, etc.,--please list any possible ways regardless
of
how remote the possibility is.

I really would like to give the benefit of doubt to my son; but, with the
bit I know about computers, it is my understanding that if there is
activity
in the history log, then it was visited by someone deliberately clicking
on a
site or link (in the case of pictures, etc.).

Is this not the case? If there is any other explanation, please, please
let
me know.

Please answer all of the above questions, as each one has its own
importance
to the well-being of our family.

Thank you.

For the most part, what's past and erased is past and erased. You're too
late to get the evidence now.

As to the history events being related to related to wireless access, the
answer is no, unless the computer was operated by remote control (i.e.
remote desktop). The browser history is a history of the local browser use
for the account in use, not of any other system on the network or any other
account on the system.

If you are using a router with wireless functions, go immediately to the
router via a wired connection and change the wireless encryption keys (if
you do it via wireless you will lose connection). Update the keys on the
PCs that you want to allow wireless access to. All others will be
instantly disconnected. If you aren't using encryption, turn it on.
And do not use the default SSID - change it. Change these keys regularly.

Again, yes, particularly if your router is wide open, someone could quite
possibly gain internet access through it, but no, this will not normally
cause any changes to the browser history on your system. Be sure that the
router is *not* wide open.

If you need to restrict the sites this system can access, get a program like
NetNanny. Use a good password, and change it regularly and be sure that
you are the only one who knows it - but have a way to remember it. If you
suspect is is known, change it - end of problem.

These programs can work very well and aren't expensive. And they often
provide logging functions. However, note that they can be overly
restrictive and you may need to relax or change or remove the restrictions
from time to time.

They will, however, not affect or restrict any other system on the network.
And you will need to be sure that the restrictions apply to all accounts on
your system, including newly created accounts. You may need to reduce the
permission levels for the children's user accounts, and password protect all
the other accounts particularly the Administrator accounts. Do *not* use
just the original Administrator account (in XP Home this is only available
through Safe Mode and has no password).

Test the restricted accounts as you may very well find that some software
will not run properly, if at all.

Finally, while it's possible that these sites were visited deliberately,
it's also quite possible that they weren't. It's very easy to have
browsers hijacked or redirected, and this can easily result in history
entries and cookie creation.

HTH
-pk

 

[marse]

I have a rather sticky situation that I need assistance with.

While helping my daughter with a school research project, I noticed that
my
son had visited some sites that are of a questionable nature. When I
confronted him about this, he told me that he did not go to any such
sites.

Porn? A teenage boy downloading porn? It can't be.

When my husband returned from being out of town (for the week), I went to
show him what I had seen in the history. But, the history and cookies had
been erased.

Tell you son that she should use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.
With Firefox, he can set his cache, history, etc to be deleted automatically
on exit.

My husband feels that I am probably making a bigger deal out of
this, and that the sites probably weren't all that bad anyway.

Haha -- sounds like your husband spends time downloading porn too.

 

[marse]

This will still show all their porn sites.

http://www.stevengould.org/software/indexdatspy/download.html

(Another reason to not use IE. I remember years ago having autoexec.bat
delete the index.dat's on boot.)