Tracking visited websites through my router?

[Steve B]

They may just want to avoid you finding out that they are wasting time on Twitter, MySpace or some other site you have complained about in the past ..

It's also possible that they have set their Browser to auto-delete History anyway (especially since the BIGGEST threat to a kids privacy is their own brother / sister ....)

You could setup your own Proxy Server (or install software like Net Nanny) ... however this implies 'Guilty without trial' .... (as well as being more illogical actions of grown-ups)


I think that perhaps what you want to do is 'suggest' to your kids that the capability of monitoring their access exists .. and thus modify their behavior (if it needs modifying) ..

How good are you at deception ???

Make sure the kids are nearby and then start a conversation with your wife that goes along the lines of "Do you think our internet connection is secure ? Only the Internet company rang me up at work today and said they were conducting a security audit and noticed some odd activity on our connection .. something about "inappropriate use" ???" ...

You can then wander off into a discussion about WiFi Security (WAP, WPA, hacking etc) and how the neighbors might be able to 'tap into' the Router .... and end up saying something like "I'll phone them back and ask them to monitor what's happening " ...

A while later you can follow up with "The internet company said that they were recording all web site visits due to some new Government Directive anyway ..... but they want to charge me £10 for sending a daily log .. I don't think it's worth it, do you ? we can just change the WiFi passwords ever so often and that should stop any unauthorised access ..." ...

If you still have concerns you can move onto "OK, that's it, the Internet company rang me again about "inappropriate use" .. . I'm going to install monitoring software and find out who's hacking our connection ..." .. and that allows you to start changing all sorts of security settings that might have side effects (such as preventing the kids accounts ability to delete history)


All of the above assumes you want to avoid getting into "I didn't do anything wrong" and "it wasn't me it was my brother /sister" conflicts ... and also want to teach them the lesson "To avoid getting caught, stop doing it as soon as some-one starts investigating"...