Does a system administrator know?

Question

...if I'm using the internet and if it's active? i.e - If I'm on a site and it's idle for a while whilst I'm busy doing other things or if I am clicking on things within that site say yahoo news and then weather etc. I'm linked to a network at my work

OMG! now I'm scared I find my job can be quite often and i can be on the net for hours I work for a large co so i really hope they are too busy to look for this, on the other hand I'm backing off from the net Thank god i'm at home now!!

I hope you're very wrong Mr R because I use the pc at work to do my banking online

Answer 1

each time you click something on a webpage such as a link, that is your web browser requesting more data from the server that the page is hosted on.

this in turn means visible network traffic both within the home/work network, and then again between the local network and the internet.

whether this would ever be looked at comes down to how the system administrator administrates his/her network - they may have monitoring software running to track inappropriate usage (porn, ebay, myspace etc) and only look at network traffic when that software spots something. they may not have monitoring software and only look at the network when there is a problem.

of course if they've alot of time on their hands they may cross the line and start reading people's emails, seeing what sites they visit, and so on. within a work environment it's even legal to do that because the company have the legal right to monitor the use of their computers and resources.

Answer 2

Yes, depending on how paranoid your system admin is, he/she knows each site you visit on the web. All of the Internet traffic that leaves your site goes through a router. Routers keep logs. Sys Admins look at logs.

On the other hand, most Sys Admins are too busy to look at these logs and only spend time on the project if someone tells them there is a problem.

Mike Honeycutt

Answer 3

Of course, System Admins can use programs like Novell Client to monitor what your doing LIVE!

Ive seen the program working, they can log anything you type, espesially passwords, usernames etc.

They have a list of all the computers in the sytem and can monitor what your doing at any time opf the day! Then they can freeze your screen, turn of your computer, restart etc.

Pretty scary to me. lol

Answer 4

ABSOLUTELY! The tech guy where I worked took me to the Server Room. He wanted me to see it because I emailed a resume from the office.

I was surprised to read email that others in the office were sending and receiving.

Never put anything on your office computer that you don't want the System Administrator and management to read.

Answer 5

Yes, they can access the log files and find out who's on the internet , for how long , and where.

Answer 6

Depends on how your company is setup, but yes most companies can tell exactly what websites you are looking at and for how long.