How To Watch Or Log Internet Traffic On My Son's Computer

wizzerking · Joined: Oct 31, 2005 Posts: 3

A fellow boy scout wants a computer in his room, but the boy's father insists on being able to track
where the young fellow travels on the internet.
I know about the internet cache, etc but the father insists on something that is more automated and user friendly
If the app is freeware the better.
The young man does not seem to mind having is internet travels tracked, so secrecy is probably not too much of an issue either.
Thank you for any pointers.

jereece · Joined: Dec 06, 2002 Posts: 567

It's probably more than what you are looking for, but I use BSafe on my son's computer. It sends me an mail note each week with a list of every web site my son tried to visit or actually visited. The report shows which web sites he was allowed to visit and which ones were denied and why. It also shows me how much time he spent on the internet and when. BSafe is also a web site filter, but it's highly customizable. You can disallow web sites based on category (i.e. violance, chat, etc.), white list, black list, etc. I also like the feature to disallow any internet activity between whatever time you set. I don't allow my son on the internet between 1am and 6am. The report also shows me when he attempted to get on the internet during the restricted time. It's a great service, but it costs $50 per year. I know everyone likes freeware, especially me, but this service is worth the money. I know he can go somewhere else like a friends house if he wants to, but I have peace of mind that I have set a moral standard in my house. It's not perfect, but I have proof that this service works well.

Jim

goretsky · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:05 am Post subject:

Hello,

Blue Coat's WebFilter appliance might might be what your fellow boy scout's father is looking for. The product is more geared towards the enterprise than an individual household, though, however, Blue Coat might have more suitable offerings for the home user market.

A related subject, Internet filtering, is a question which periodically comes up in the forum. You can view some of the message threads discussing the subject here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

jereece · Joined: Dec 06, 2002 Posts: 567

K9 Web Protection uses the Blue Coat technology. It runs as a service like BSafe, but it does not have all the featuers of Bsafe including the weekly email that shows you the sites visited or attempted to visit by the user. K9 appears to just be a content filter service, but it's free. So if a content filter is what you need then I would give K9 a try. However if you need more controls and features, I would recommend BSafe.

Jim

Morbius · Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 1712

It would appear that modern day parents are being very foolish, letting their kids get on the internet totally Unwatched.
Aside from the topic of this thread, there is one more thing that all parents should do besides monitor their kids internet use.....
And that is, to install and keep up to date a "Custome Hosts file".
I just installed a program that checks for updates on my Hosts file and installs updates.
MS.net was required so I installed that too. Here's what I received by eMail today:
****************************************

The MVPS HOSTS file was updated [01-31-06]
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

hosts.zip (102 kb)
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip

How To: Extract the HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm

HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm

Note: the "text" version also makes a great resource
for determining culprit URLs ... (408 kb)
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt

Sign up for HOSTS file update notices
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm#contribute

Mike Burgess
Microsoft MVP
"There's no place like 127.0.0.1"

***********************************
I strongly encourage every parent in the world to get a custom hosts file installed on their "kids" PC's at once and keep it up to date.
It's currently blocking over 10,500 bad sites.

Good Luck and Safe Computing,
Morbius :cheers:

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

Hmmmmm! Another OLD thread, dredged up from the bottom of the archival lake.

To bring 'Morbius's' post up to date, the custom hosts file can now be updated from four different (independent and still FREE) sites, with the new and upgraded "HostsMan" (Hosts Manager) program.

By running "HostsMan" just once a week, you can keep your hosts file up to date and prevent your browsers from going to thousands of bad web sites.
I install it for all my customers who have children in the house that use the family PC.

It can't possibly prevent them from going to every bad site in the world, but is does seriously limit such activity.
The new and improved version of "HostsMan" can be down-loaded here:
http://www.abelhadigital.com/

Yes, it's a Beta-4, but it works great and fixes a problem that had developed with the older version, where it would just lock up trying to access the "hpHosts" site.
Four different sites are offered and I select them all.

It's just another small step in "Immunizing" a PC against bad web sites.

Two other great programs (also FREE) that Immunize your browsers, are Spybot Search & Destroy and 'Spyware-Blaster'.
Everyone, adult or child can benefit from these Immunizations. Wink

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor Cool

goretsky

Hello,

The message which updated this thread was removed for being spam, but thank you for taking the time to post an update.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky