I booked into a hotel recently and downloaded a few tracks from Limewire. Can their IT people be nosey and see what Im doing?
2006-06-09 07:39:53 · 4 answers · asked by Sherlock 6 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
If they can, what is it that they see?
2006-06-09 07:56:37 · update #1
No they can't see exactly what you downloaded
2006-06-09 07:47:52 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not likely that their _server_ can see what you are doing, but their network equipment (routers, gateways, firewalls, proxies, cache engines, etc) can _absolutely_ see what you are doing.
Assuming you were using the data port in your room, then they would be able to see,
The time that you plugged your computer into their network and got an ip address. They would know this ip address was assigned to your system.
Then they could see every transaction between your computer and their devices and every transaction between your computer and any internet sites.
Every web page, every image, every link, every graphic is "requested" by your workstation when you connect to a site. The request and the response is an entire communication that the hotel's network gear has to handle.
Something like,
Your Computer> I need an ip address
Hotel Gear> Here's one, 10.10.10.10
Your Computer> Thanks I got it
Your Computer> Send me to www.yahoo.com
Hotel Gear> Hang on, I'll look up that address
Hotel Gear> Okay, got it, sending you to yahoo
Yahoo> I'm got a request for our homepage from you
Hotel Gear> yep, send it my way
Hotel Gear> Hey, 10.10.10.10, got some stuff for you
Your Computer> Okay, I'm ready go ahead and send it
Hotel Gear> Okay Yahoo, send it on through
Yahoo> Here's all the text, here's all the images, etc
Hotel Gear> Okay, I'm sending that to 10.10.10.10
Your Computer> Okay, I got all that
.. and so on ...
Proxy logs are actually much more tedious to read. Loading a web page like Yahoo's homepage might require several dozen send and receive pairs.
Basically, the hotel's network infrastructure answers your requests for information from the internet, they make the request on your behalf, then send the information back to your computer. All of that is trackable.
2006-06-09 16:28:52 · answer #2 · answered by Kevin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the server is configured to, yes.
But unless they're a big, fancy hotel and you clogged up their network they probably won't care.
2006-06-09 14:51:25 · answer #3 · answered by accurrent103 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes - but do they care? Probably not.
2006-06-09 14:42:53 · answer #4 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋