Without downloading spyware, how do I find out if inappropriate sites were visited on my comp.?

Answer 1

Thing is anybody with half a brain these days knows how to delete the histories and such. Sure you can look at the cookiies or delve into some log files and such but unless you really know what to look for it will be tough.

Basically a keylogger is about the only way to go. Now if it is a kid you should be able to handle this regardless. Its called step away from the computer and let me have a look. It's called setting up their user account to block going certain places. But people will see what they want to see. Install the keylogger.

Then watch what happens. Decide if it is worth a battle. If you find some inappropriate stuff say nothing. Just stress that if you ever find out that they are into stuff you don't approve of the repercussions will be severe. Then if it happens again after given the chance............ no more computer, period.

Answer 2

In your browser, if you don't have a History button, you can press Control and H to open up a history pane on the side of your browser. Usually this contains all the sites you visit for the past 2 or 3 weeks. You can also delete this by right clicking the folders and selecting delete or simply by selecting the folder (clicking it once) and hitting delete on your keyboard.

Answer 3

get the following, all are free for a safe surfing experience,
install in SAFE mode with networking ( hit F-8 at boot time ), run them all in SAFE mode
with networking as you'll need it for the updates all the programs below will need.
Turn off RESTORE and the RECYLE BIN temporarily as virii can regenerate / reinfect even if you delete
them with both services on. After all the scanning and cleaning after a 2nd reboot and one last
scan do you turn both of them back on.

ANTI VIRAL

AVG (free) http://free.grisoft.com/


FIREWALL

ZoneAlarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

WEB BROWSER - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox

EMAIL use thunderbird. It has a good built in spam filter and learns when you teach it. http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird

SPYWARE

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html


and if you have a wireless router follow these tips,


1. Use WPA encryption (WPA-PSK) it's less crackable then WEP.

2. Make a passphrase that is upper & lower case and has some numbers thrown in there as well, again harder to crack.
some like mAkE1t5eCurE0rel53 and as long as possible.

3. Use MAC access control so only you or authorized PC's can connect (even if you do have encryption turned on)

4. Turn off DHCP use static addresses.

5. Turn off SSID (and change it) unless your card really needs it (some do)

6. Change username/password of access unit front end

7. Ensure you have the usual firewall enabled on your PC.

8. Paranoia rules, turn WLAN off if your not using it :)


one last tip
control panel---administrator tools--services--messenger

right clik on it
stop the service
then disable it
save changes

Answer 4

check the history files or try a keylogger