Logging Tool

[Vince H]

Hey guys and gal's,

Not all that new to the forums, used to under a different user, but forget me password and changed email! D'oh!

Anyway, being a concerned parent, I'm naturally taking an interest into whay my kids look at on the Internet. Sure, there are programs out there that monitor Internet usage by Norton and McAfee, but my eldest unfortunately knows how to bypass these. He's a bit more technology-minded than I'd like!

I'm looking for a tool to make in Visual Basic that will log all websites that the computer goes to in a .txt file (that I specify) so I can look at it. Just a simple exe that will run in the background for me.

Any help would be greatly appriciated, and cheers beforehand!

-Vince

[Hack]

Wouldn't that be captured in IE History?

[Vince H]

He deletes it, suprisingly...

[Hack]

What OS are you running?

Do you require all individuals using the computer to have their own, unique, log ids? (I do on all my home computers and I have specific rights set up for specific Ids (wifes, kids, guests, etc).

I'm the only administrator on any of my boxes.

[Vince H]

Windows XP I'm aiming for, that's what I'm running and no, just a program that logs all traffic to all websites in or out of the box.

[sessi4ml]

Out of the box solution...AOL
My sister loves it

[Vince H]

Argh, my son might just notice that. Sorry mate, but I'm looking for a VB approach.

[VBlee]

Out of the box solution...AOL

i wouldnt recommend aol, its not a great program to use, and very easy to bypass, if hes much into computers as many teens are logging what he does would be a hugh task to do, if you block sites he will get to them easy, if you log them and then confront him he will realise theres something going on and find it therefore stop it running by deleting closeing process etc. then theres the fact if you block the web browser he will just get another.

however if you can find a good solution please let me know.

[the182guy]

If he can get around other programs he will get around a VB exe running in the background. VB is not the strongest language to write this type of app in.

BTW if your son is old enough to find workarounds to those programs, I'm guessing he's old enough to use the Internet responsibly, if he can't use it responsibly without you there maybe he's too young to use it without you being there.

Alarm bells ring when you say you want to log all sites, most people would prefer to block certain sites, rather than allow the website and log it so you can secretly spy on him.

You can't come here and ask someone to write a program for the sole purpose of invading your sons privacy, this type of program comes under the malicious heading.

More important than that, if he finds out you have been spying on him and you will continue to do so, you will cause psychological problems, he will hate you and it can lead to huge problems, in worse case scenario for example suicide.

If you're really concerned about the content your son is subjected to on the Internet, get one of those child protection software solutions that will block bad websites, if it's a good one he won't get around it.

[Vince H]

Alright, alright. I must admit, it does sound a bit strange reading it back a couple of days on. Delete this post then, I see your point.

[superbovine]

If you are using a popular home router like linksys and dlink they have logging tools you can grab. they use SNMP. For linksys you can dowload their client on point to a pc for logging. This situation would be optimal if you have more than 1 pc. If you captured the logs on your PC your son would never know that it was going on unless he sniffed the network traffic.

if you don't have a home router like this, i would suggest you pick one up for about $50 to $100 USD.

The great think about these a lot of them come with parental control. Dlink has nice features were you can enable and disable ports, for example block world of warcraft port between such and such hours, or blocking AIM or MSN messenger port etc.

Have fun.

[VBlee]

there are still other ways round using things such as msn messenger, he may just use the 100s of website version of msn so that would mean blocking the whole net.

[superbovine]

there are still other ways round using things such as msn messenger, he may just use the 100s of website version of msn so that would mean blocking the whole net.

this is why you log everything

[Nerd-Man]

i think he want to make a program similar to keylogger which are dirty programs and harm people. beside even if you log all the sites he visit, you cannot stop him from viewing them. when i was a kid, i use to watch dirty books or magazines.. and when my father use to burn them then i use to goto a friends house to watch more dirty movies... i think i was about 12 or 13 yrs old when all that happen kee hee hee... so anyway trying to stop him will make him do more. so the best way is to talk with him face to face. but if you want to make a dirty program to log all the sites, then maybe later i will try to find some source for you. but you should know these are dirty programs.

[the182guy]

i think he want to make a program similar to keylogger which are dirty programs and harm people. beside even if you log all the sites he visit, you cannot stop him from viewing them. when i was a kid, i use to watch dirty books or magazines.. and when my father use to burn them then i use to goto a friends house to watch more dirty movies... i think i was about 12 or 13 yrs old when all that happen kee hee hee... so anyway trying to stop him will make him do more. so the best way is to talk with him face to face. but if you want to make a dirty program to log all the sites, then maybe later i will try to find some source for you. but you should know these are dirty programs.

Discussion of creating SPYWARE is not permitted here, as far as I know.

Not that the network programming forum is ever moderated anyway

[VBlee]

Not that the network programming forum is ever moderated anyway

lol.

i think within the right uses that this should be allowed to be talked about, i dont think this topic in anyway is a malicious thing.