Can a PC Network monitor me on a Mac?

[barbourdg]

Question:

If I connect my powerbook to my works PC Network (during the day) can they monitor what I do?

I am not sure if they are running monitoring programs on the stationary PCs (on the network), but if they ever did -- Could they see my internet browsing? Could they see my emails (on .mac)?

Its a PC Network, and I use DHCP which connects me automatically.

Thanks
Robin

[edesignuk]

I am sure the network ops team could and can see what your doing if they wanted to. They will be able to monitor all network traffic no matter where it comes from.

[Counterfit]

If they run software that monitors TCP/IP packets, then they can monitor you too.

[virividox]

yeah just cuz ur on a mac doenst mean they cant tell what ur looking at, and ur network traffic. just be careful

[barbourdg]

thanks. Do they make any software that encrypts on my end? They can't see email that I open or send on .mac? can they?

This is not a full time job, and I sometimes preview websites that I have been working on from their T1 connection.

Robin

[virividox]

you mean encrypt the stuff u send. u could try pgp, i think panther has built in encryption, but remember a copy of ur message is kept on every server it passes thru

another word of advice, if you are doing outside work, leave it on the outside, dont use ur time in work to deal with matters that dont relate, especially other work, its just a total lack of respect for your employers.

[barbourdg]

Its not that I am working on outside work, at this job. I mainly work out of my home with no set hours. I am on a montly contract for several medical companies. When I do go to one company (even though I am not on the clock), another customer might call me and ask for me to update something on their website. Hence the problem.

This company does not care if I use their T1 connection during their office hours. But at the same time, I do not want them knowing who is emailing me or what sites I am visiting (of my own).

Thanks
Robin

[Dippo]

Originally posted by barbourdg
Its not that I am working on outside work, at this job. I mainly work out of my home with no set hours. I am on a montly contract for several medical companies. When I do go to one company (even though I am not on the clock), another customer might call me and ask for me to update something on their website. Hence the problem.

This company does not care if I use their T1 connection during their office hours. But at the same time, I do not want them knowing who is emailing me or what sites I am visiting (of my own).

Thanks
Robin

Do you think that they would care if they did find out?

Also, if all they have is a T1 line, I doubt that they have someone monitoring all the traffic as long as you don't look like a hacker or something.

It really depends on what other people do on the connection, if other people use it to surf the web and stuff, then you will be okay.

[scem0]

if you're ever on a PC and need security and privacy then you can go into command prompt and type ip config /release_all but you will lose internet access, and then you get it back by typing ip config /renew_all

But that is really not addressing your question. I think they can monitor what you are doing, but they might not be able to view your screen. I doubt the software that allows you to do that is mac/pc compatible. But I am not very knowledgable when it comes to this.

scem0

[parenthesis]

You can use the website http://www.anonymizer.com to go around tracking software. I remember using sites like this when we tried to get around BESS at the high school (filtering software that was very poor quality)

[Counterfit]

Let me put it this way, if you don't want them seeing your packets, you have two options: use encryption (like SSL) or don't use their network for stuff you don't want them seeing. Anyone with a computer can monitor the traffic on the network, all they need is a packet sniffer app like MacSniffer (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13007)