How easy is it for my parents to check router history?

[Cicero]

So I know that it's possible to check the routers wifi history without going on that exact computer. But is it a difficult process to check it if our Internet wifi router provider is Cox? I'm worried that my dad has checked the routers site history.

Also, with cell phones. Is it easy to check the history that Is accessed by a cell phone using the data Internet plan? Is it posssible? I have t mobile btw. If its a long or difficult process, I know my parents wouldn't take their time to check it.

[Zarakly]

I don't know if it is even easy for checking the routers history. My parents strongly disapprove of porn, but if they were to somehow check the history I would be in a lot of trouble. They haven't said anything yet, so I don't know if they do know or not. Anyway thats just what I have for you...

[darkwoon]

So I know that it's possible to check the routers wifi history without going on that exact computer. But is it a difficult process to check it if our Internet wifi router provider is Cox?
i'm not sure I properly understand your question, but most of the time, if you own the router, you know the Internet Service Provider it is connected on. And if not, yes, most of the time, it is quite easy to know which ISP your router is connected with.

I'm worried that my dad has checked the routers site history.
Of course, it depends on the router, but most domestic routers actually don't keep track of connections made to the external world by client computers. What they do is keeping track of when a client connects, disconnects, or requests routing services (for example, asking the router for an IP address (DHCP)). Again, it depends on the router model and its settings.

Even if it logs the complete connection exchanges, there is still something it cannot really do: determine if the user actually intended to make that connection. Think about the many ads on webpages - you didn't really want to see them, yet your browser actually got them. The router cannot determine if you voluntarily went to, say, a porn website, or if it was actually an ad (or malware/adware) that triggered the request.

So in short, logs may tell you where you connected and when, but even so, they will not tell you why.

Also, with cell phones. Is it easy to check the history that Is accessed by a cell phone using the data Internet plan? Is it posssible? I have t mobile btw. If its a long or difficult process, I know my parents wouldn't take their time to check it.
I know no operator that provides such detailed logs to their customers. What they'll provide is the amount of data exchanged for a given time period. In many countries, ISPs must keep a record of the connections performed in case justice requests them (think for example of pedophiles trading illegal pictures), but those records are not available to mere mortals, due to life privacy protection laws.

So unless your parents installed a tracking software on your computer/cellphone, chences that they can precisely track what websites you visited and when are pretty thin.

[Cicero]

i'm not sure I properly understand your question, but most of the time, if you own the router, you know the Internet Service Provider it is connected on. And if not, yes, most of the time, it is quite easy to know which ISP your router is connected with.


Of course, it depends on the router, but most domestic routers actually don't keep track of connections made to the external world by client computers. What they do is keeping track of when a client connects, disconnects, or requests routing services (for example, asking the router for an IP address (DHCP)). Again, it depends on the router model and its settings.

Even if it logs the complete connection exchanges, there is still something it cannot really do: determine if the user actually intended to make that connection. Think about the many ads on webpages - you didn't really want to see them, yet your browser actually got them. The router cannot determine if you voluntarily went to, say, a porn website, or if it was actually an ad (or malware/adware) that triggered the request.

So in short, logs may tell you where you connected and when, but even so, they will not tell you why.


I know no operator that provides such detailed logs to their customers. What they'll provide is the amount of data exchanged for a given time period. In many countries, ISPs must keep a record of the connections performed in case justice requests them (think for example of pedophiles trading illegal pictures), but those records are not available to mere mortals, due to life privacy protection laws.

So unless your parents installed a tracking software on your computer/cellphone, chences that they can precisely track what websites you visited and when are pretty thin.
Would it be easy to check? Cause like, my dad says that porn can pop up on computers, but he says gay porn doesn't do that (there was a different situation that brought this up) and I mostly only watch gay porn. So then it would say what gay site I went to? Is the process hard to do or long (to check sites that have been visited)? My parents aren't really tech savvy. But know how to do stuff like set up routers (Im sure with the help of a professional or whatever). Am in danger of him easily checking my websites through the router?

[Telkanis]

If they weren't tech savy I think you are safe but it depends on the router. I know I was worried about the same thing so I tested out home router because I had the pass codes into the router. You can probably look up what the default pass coded are and maybe your parents haven't changed them. Anyway, mine has an option that can block all sites with specific words on it but parents don't have it active thankfully. It dos have a logging option but all I could find was a log of ip addresses and it had hundreds of them so parents would have to go in and look at each IP address.

I think I'm safe because my parents aren't very tech savy with and I don't think they'd put that much effort into checking what I do. I'd be more worried about them just trying to check browser history so thats why I clear it every time or go into private browsing mode that does record history.

Good luck.

[Cicero]

If they weren't tech savy I think you are safe but it depends on the router. I know I was worried about the same thing so I tested out home router because I had the pass codes into the router. You can probably look up what the default pass coded are and maybe your parents haven't changed them. Anyway, mine has an option that can block all sites with specific words on it but parents don't have it active thankfully. It dos have a logging option but all I could find was a log of ip addresses and it had hundreds of them so parents would have to go in and look at each IP address.

I think I'm safe because my parents aren't very tech savy with and I don't think they'd put that much effort into checking what I do. I'd be more worried about them just trying to check browser history so thats why I clear it every time or go into private browsing mode that does record history.

Good luck.

That makes me feel better. What kind of router do you have? Also, if my router has the same tracking ability yours does, would mine be the same and provide IP addresses like yours? Also, when you say IP addresses, what exactly does that mean? Is it stuff like "3838485" or would it be stuff like "thisisapornsite.com" (not actually a porn site I listed, just something like that) or like a website like "virtualteen.org"?

[Telkanis]

It's a linksys valet something or another I'm at boarding school right now so can't actually check exactly what it is for you. It's just says stuff like 204.197.242.151 (this is vt ip address btw). If you are at home and type in 192.168.1.1 it should give you access to the router and you can look at what settings yours has. You'd need the login and password though.

[Silicate Wielder]

I got a router/modem... sooo... yeah. My mom hates porn down to the very last fragment of it. I don't think she can check its history without calling them first.

[Cicero]

It's a linksys valet something or another I'm at boarding school right now so can't actually check exactly what it is for you. It's just says stuff like 204.197.242.151 (this is vt ip address btw). If you are at home and type in 192.168.1.1 it should give you access to the router and you can look at what settings yours has. You'd need the login and password though.

Oh ok so that's what I thought. So if any router has website history available. It would look like that, or only certain routers?

[darkwoon]

Oh ok so that's what I thought. So if any router has website history available. It would look like that, or only certain routers?
If your router hold any connection history, it will probably be similar to:

net2fw:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1c:c0:3a:73:47:00:b0:8e:83:3b:f0:08:00 SRC=91.105.77.81 DST=91.121.73.196 LEN=56 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=54 ID=17878 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=55241 DPT=23 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
net2fw:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1c:c0:3a:73:47:00:b0:8e:83:3b:f0:08:00 SRC=212.253.71.241 DST=91.121.40.90 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=15993 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=3499 DPT=23 WINDOW=5808 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
net2fw:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1c:c0:3a:73:47:00:b0:8e:83:3b:f0:08:00 SRC=220.160.47.39 DST=91.121.40.90 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=41990 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=58225 DPT=9107 WINDOW=5440 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
This is just an example, of course, but you get the idea. Here is the kind of log a typical D-Link home router spits out:

[INFO] Thu May 13 00:21:07 2004 Blocked outgoing TCP packet from 192.168.0.198:36386 to 173.194.34.70:443 as FIN:PSH:ACK received but there is no active connection
[INFO] Thu May 13 00:21:07 2004 Blocked outgoing TCP packet from 192.168.0.198:47119 to 173.194.78.94:80 as FIN:PSH:ACK received but there is no active connection
[INFO] Thu May 13 00:21:06 2004 Blocked outgoing TCP packet from 192.168.0.198:42235 to 74.125.132.84:443 as FIN:PSH:ACK received but there is no active connection

As you can see, what most logs will give you is:
- The source IP: that's the address of the computer that initiated the connection;
- The destination IP: that's the address of the computer the source was trying to connect to;
- The protocol: the "type" of connection established, this can be TCP, UDP, ICMP;
- The destination port: the port on the destination the source was trying to contact.

The destination port tells you the service the connection relates to. For example, Port 80/TCP is the "http" service - that is, a webpages provider. You can find a list of typical port-services here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers).

So, if your father wants to know which websites you visited (and provided your router logged those, which is not sure at all), he'd have to search in the logs for entries that:
- Are of type TCP;
- Have 80 as the destination port;
- Have your computer/smartphone source IP.

And then, translate the destination IP into a meaningful name (provided that one exists). There are various command-line, graphical, or web tools to do that, for example this (http://www.iptodns.com/iptodns.php). Note that due to the way internet works, you won't always get a meaningful result. For example, "google.fr" gave me an IP=173.194.35.151, but the IP=173.194.35.151 gave me "muc03s01-in-f23.1e100.net".

As you can see, checking the kind of websites you are visiting by logfile analysis is usually a rather involving task; most routers won't log the necessary details, and most users won't have the knowledge and/or patience to analyze them.

[Axw_JD]

Or he could look up the local DNS cache copy to get the URLs, or ask the ISP to log and track it. I know its sad to hear it but yes, if your parents REALLY want to know if and what kinds of porn sites you visit, they can.

Its a lot of effort, and probably not worth it, but definitely doable.

[sammy1996]

While it seems like its possible its quite unlikely the majority of parents are savvy enough to be able to do it, and also if it involves more effort than going on a browser and looking at the internet history i doubt they'd do it.

[darkwoon]

Or he could look up the local DNS cache copy to get the URLs, or ask the ISP to log and track it.
Most home routers won't allow you to get the content of the local DNS cache. He could look at the cache of the client machine, but if you have access to the client, you have much easier ways to track what the user is going. Even if you have the DNS cache content, you still cannot determine which requests were made by the user, and which were triggered by malware, web advertising banners, etc.

In most countries, you cannot ask your ISP your own detailed connection logs. This is considered private life data, and as such, they are only allowed to disclose such records in a justice investigation.

[Kacey]

While it seems like its possible its quite unlikely the majority of parents are savvy enough to be able to do it, and also if it involves more effort than going on a browser and looking at the internet history i doubt they'd do it.

Mine are but good thing I have a brother hehe

[ImCoolBeans]

OP request. :locked: