What activity can the my network administrator see?

Question

I work in a mid-sized firm which has operates using windows xp. what level of activity can the network administrator view? ie can he see what files i have viewed/copied or can he access my private folders? Thank you.

Answer 1

Although there have already been a lot of good answers, as a network admin for a mid size office, I will throw in my 2 cents. Yes, the admin can view virtually everything you do on the network, and he may be able to access all the files and folders on your drive depending on the software installed. The exception to this is if you transact business on secure web sites, although they can view the activity, it is still encrypted, so your bank accounts are safe. If the admin has any ethics, he will not monitor individual activity UNLESS there is evidence or suspicious activity from your system. Keep in mind, in most companies it is standard that 1- The computer is the companies property, and can do to it what they want. 2- You are only permitted to do what the company has allowed or requested you to do on that computer. This has stood up to legal challenge, you do not have an implied right to privacy using the companies assets. In short, use your computer for what it is intended, or you risk your job.

Answer 2

Administrators can see what you are doing via setting up auditing on certain files and folders. Also, many companies use a proxy server for web access and everything you do on the web can be monitored. But to alievate any concerns, most network administrators have better things to do than view your network activity....and your assuming that they even care what you're doing on the network.

Answer 3

He or She "Can", but wether they do or not depends on the Business policy and the Ethics of the Administrator.
In most cases, they don't watch people specifically, but they can log access to web sites, log the presence of certain files. And certain key words ( of whatever the Admins decide) can be logged as present in any Emails, files, or other activity.
If you try, for example, to bypass the proxy that is set up, they can see who did what by the reports they get. They can "see" whatever the choose to see, and log whatever they want to log.
One thing that is extremely true under the current business climate is that "Emails are forever" at least as far as your Current career is concerned.
But in practice, logs take up space, and space and CPU time spent tracking people does take a little away from the overall network ability to work. You basically never know, since any request to monitor any person can be done at any time, and if so desired, the Monitor can be very detailed if they want it to be.

Answer 4

He or she can see anything that you have viewed or copied or downloaded, if the boss of the admin. recognizes any suspicious behavior they can allow a complete scan of your computer and account. Nothing you delete is actually deleted. There is a space in the Harddrive that keeps these deleted files still their. It's a scary thing but yes, the admin. can view practically anything. My mom is a network admin. she had to do a sweep on someones computer because the boss recognized suspicous activity (He was on his email a lot!) She found a bunch of emails that had drug deals with this employee and that he ran an escort service. So a lesson that you aren't really safe with your work computer.

Answer 5

Pretty much everything. Presumably the administrator has administrator access to all computers including workstations, so if they had to, they could log in and look at what's on the computer. Possibly even remotely. As for network, they can see all the connections you make and where to, and even see what you say in them unless they are secure connections (like when you pay on online stores or SSH connections).

Answer 6

I used to train professional client service people for a huge marketing research company. Almost the first thing I told a new class was this: treat your computer as if it is a bulletin board and do not post, surf, write or circulate anything that you don't want your boss or your mother to see. Network administrators can now not only see your stuff, they can count your keystrokes, trace your links and time how long you do anything. Don't fool yourself.

Answer 7

all he wants