Monitoring use on my home network

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

I have a home network set up using a linksys 4-port router and cable modem
for internet access. Router connects to modem and all computers connect to
router. Is there any way for em to monitor interent access of the other
computers on my network. the other machines are my kids' computers and I
would like to check up on what sites they are visitting and what they are
downloading from P2P services and such without going in their room and
sitting at there computer. Is this possible???
Also, can I restrict access to certain inappropriate sites and files on
their connection???

Thanks and God bless,

-BunnMan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

BunnMan wrote:
> I have a home network set up using a linksys 4-port router and cable modem
> for internet access. Router connects to modem and all computers connect to
> router. Is there any way for em to monitor interent access of the other
> computers on my network. the other machines are my kids' computers and I
> would like to check up on what sites they are visitting and what they are
> downloading from P2P services and such without going in their room and
> sitting at there computer. Is this possible???
> Also, can I restrict access to certain inappropriate sites and files on
> their connection???
>
> Thanks and God bless,
>
> -BunnMan

My kids have a separate computer. I subscribed to MSN solely for the
purpose of getting parental controls and I'm happy. My eldest is 11, the
younger is 9. It works fine. Once they get into high school I doubt it
would be sufficient but I won't try to limit it at that point, anyway.
I'll simply hope my parenting already worked.

Anyway, MSN provides fine detail reports if you want. Also, it can be
configured that anyone using http services on a computer _must_ log into
MSN first. It's a bit of a pain for me when I'm trying to reconfigure
they're computer, but I have the non-filtered parent account, anyway.

I would never personally use MSN as a content provider but it works for
my purposes regarding controlling or monitoring kids' surfing and email.
I'll guess AOL has something similar but I don't know details.

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

BunnMan wrote:

> I have a home network set up using a linksys 4-port router and cable
> modem
> for internet access. Router connects to modem and all computers
> connect to router. Is there any way for em to monitor interent access
> of the other
> computers on my network. the other machines are my kids' computers
> and I would like to check up on what sites they are visitting and what
> they are downloading from P2P services and such without going in their
> room and
> sitting at there computer. Is this possible???
> Also, can I restrict access to certain inappropriate sites and files
> on their connection???
>
Not with your setup. The kind of filtering you are talking about where
you don't filter locally (on each computer) is done with a server
running a server-side filtering program. This is overkill for you and
probably not something a typical home user could set up. Clean up each
kid's computer with malware removal tools, tell them they can't run P2P
programs and back it up with consequences. You can look into a NetNanny
type of program or something like Norton Internet Security with
parental controls. One approach (which I take) is that all computers
with Internet access are in one room, a public area of the house. The
computers in the kids' rooms don't have Internet access.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

I had a feeling that would be the case as far as restricting access. Isn't
there a way I can look at web history and such on the kids' machines from my
main computer? I understand I can't stop trash on the way in but at least I
would know if it came in.

Thanks and God bless,

-BunnMan

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

BunnMan wrote:

> I had a feeling that would be the case as far as restricting access.
> Isn't there a way I can look at web history and such on the kids'
> machines from my
> main computer? I understand I can't stop trash on the way in but at
> least I would know if it came in.
>
I suppose you could use Remote Desktop to go in there, but I don't
understand why you can't just go to their computers and look. It is a
great deterrent to bad behavior if children know that the parent can
and will do spot inspections randomly.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

 

[David]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

> I suppose you could use Remote Desktop to go in there, but I don't
> understand why you can't just go to their computers and look. It is a
> great deterrent to bad behavior if children know that the parent can
> and will do spot inspections randomly.

Sorry I can't give any technical answers. As a parent, I feel the only form
of decent parental control is parent hovering in background. My kids are 7
and 9, and when they are online one of us is usually not far away -
epecially when they have next doors teenagers round. To be fair, I've not
seen them deliberately go and find anything unsuitable.

When they are older we will let them have the internet in their rooms, but
the deal will be that all internet traffic *will* be monitored - including
spot checks on their pc's either by inspection, remote desktop or whatever
means is available at the time.

I'm guessing that there is no real way to stop teenage boys looking at
breasts etc - the main concern is chatrooms.