Inappropriate websites? I need them gone...

[cslewis]

Hey all,

In my internet ramblings, i've stumbled across some potentially inappropriate content, while viewing totally unrelated information. To the interested, it involved accidentally clicking a sidebar to questionable videos on the machater video thread.

I know enough to get by on my little iBook, but there's a ton of stuff about Macs that I don't know. And while my school's tech support team may be irksome, they have some pretty impressive tricks up their sleeves when it comes to monitoring student computer usage.

The question i'm throwing out to you resident mac wizards is a simple one. What's a sure-fire way to kill the record of what websites i've visited? I've reset Safari (which anyone could do), but I have a feeling that there are other ways (namely through apple remote desktop) that my history is being recorded.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a ton!

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

Get OnyX and run everything related to Safari.

If they are monitoring it it will have gone into their logs and/or the ISP's to...

 

[trainguy77]

Resetting Safari is really the only thing you can do. Other logs may be kept in other places. They may keep logs on there servers, or on their router. But I don't think its macrumors policy to talk about circumventing logs.

 

[jsw]

Yeah, if they want to, they can see every site that anyone on the network goes to. Clearing your history or enabling private browsing will do nothing to stop that... because the record is created when your browser sends a request through the proxy. So... I guess you need to be really careful, that's all. Try to check the link URL before clicking.

 

[kretzy]

In my internet ramblings, i've stumbled across some potentially inappropriate content, while viewing totally unrelated information. To the interested, it involved accidentally clicking a sidebar to questionable videos on the machater video thread.

A likely story! Just tell that to the tech guys at school and they should believe you.

Other than resetting Safari, I'm not sure what else you can do. I've Googled and all I could find was this . Doesn't seem very good.

 

[jsw]

But I don't think its macrumors policy to talk about circumventing logs.

I don't think that would be an issue here, but I also don't think mac_head101 is likely in a situation where he can do that.

Just be careful.

Or get a Bluetooth phone and use that connection to browse.

 

[cslewis]

Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to install software on the mac. I don't have $19.95, either.


I have this HUGE magnet downstairs in my basement, though...

 

[trainguy77]

I would not worry about it and if they do. Explain what happened. I am involved in our technical department at my school, and we don't have time to go through our logs. We only have 250 students and we got about 1 GB of "stuff" transferred a day. We can't look at those logs. We rarely look at those unless we receive warnings from it(ie HACKER), or complaints. So unless you are very unlucky you should be ok.

 

[mkrishnan]

A likely story! Just tell that to the tech guys at school and they should believe you.

I think this is actually really good advice. Just pre-empt. Go over there, and say, you're embarrassed, but this happened, and you don't want someone to think things. Most likely, no one ever would. But this way, if they do, you've got your pre-emptive action, which makes your story much more compelling, because you claimed it long before you were accused of anything.

Either that or just don't worry about it.

 

[Calvinatir]

Paranoia Run rampant! I'm sure your peers are looking at much more inappropriate stuff! Just relax, it'll all be ok

Heck, I ran a 50+ person File sharing network with a server on my school's (Pepperdine) network for 2 years with over 100GB/day transfer before anyone noticed! (and it was students who turned me in)

 

[SpaceMagic]

Paranoia Run rampant! I'm sure your peers are looking at much more inappropriate stuff! Just relax, it'll all be ok

Heck, I ran a 50+ person File sharing network with a server on my school's (Pepperdine) network for 2 years with over 100GB/day transfer before anyone noticed! (and it was students who turned me in)

Yep.

And so what... you're tech department wont care! They'll just know your fetish (any of them good looking?).

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

Paranoia Run rampant! I'm sure your peers are looking at much more inappropriate stuff! Just relax, it'll all be ok

Heck, I ran a 50+ person File sharing network with a server on my school's (Pepperdine) network for 2 years with over 100GB/day transfer before anyone noticed! (and it was students who turned me in)

Get into any trouble?

 

[Calvinatir]

haha, I'm still on probation, after 2 years! It was completely legal though (the way i set it up) No outside IPs could gain access. It was perfect, Pepperdine just didn't like it

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

haha, I'm still on probation, after 2 years! It was completely legal though (the way i set it up) No outside IPs could gain access. It was perfect, Pepperdine just didn't like it

What were you sharing?

 

[lieb39]

In response to the original question,

Don't worry about it. Although, anything history on your machine is useless to the IT staff, they have their own logs. They most likely have the logs of all the websites you visit, but the good news is that, your peers are most likely viewing worse stuff & that if you exit out of the website ASAP then it'll show, and they'll know.

Don't worry about it.

Cheers,

lieb39

 

[Calvinatir]

What were you sharing?

we were sharing everything from movies to music to notes from classes. It was awesome, any media you wanted instantly!

(In Malibu Blockbuster closes at 9)

 

[SpaceMagic]

we were sharing everything from movies to music to notes from classes. It was awesome, any media you wanted instantly!

(In Malibu Blockbuster closes at 9)

Just 'cos Blockbuster closes early... it doesn't make file sharing legal! Sharing movies is illegal, any way you look at it.

 

[revenuee]

so you looked at porn ... so what?

nobody REALLY cares unless you are notorious for it.

i doubt anyone will even notice, AND if they do, i think one site won't tip anyone off to there being a problem ... unless you've spent hours browsing and have like some astronomical number of websites in that log.

 

[Calvinatir]

Just 'cos Blockbuster closes early... it doesn't make file sharing legal! Sharing movies is illegal, any way you look at it.

But see, we were sharing movies on a CLOSED network, a COMMUNITY network. This is actually legal. There was no way for any IP's besides Pepperdine IP's to gain access. So, they could only force me to shut down and put me on probation, not call the authorities.