How can I monitor Windows XP internet history over a network? (Im ubuntu 12.04)

Question

I believe my daughter is visiting websites that she shouldn't be on. She does that from a desktop with Windows XP. Is there a program that will let me view what websites she visits over a network while I'm on Ubuntu 12.04?

Answer 1

If the browser is Firefox 3 (or newer) you could share over network the mozilla folder where the file places.sqlite is stored. This file can be analysed by sqlitebrowser for example.

Answer 2

You might be able to do it somehow, but keep in mind that if your daughter uses private browsing or incognito mode (just press ctrl+shift+P on IE, ot ctrl+shift+n on chrome, no other installations), that method will not work at all and it would be undetectable.

Answer 3

It's possible to do this to some degree by using something like wireshark, listening over the network segment (that is, you'll need to be on the same switch, and in the same vlan if that's applicable). This won't work for encrypted traffic (https, ssh, etc.), but many web sites send data in the clear. This is more complicated if trying to sniff traffic wirelessly, but there are programs such as aircrack that can get you started. Another option is to set up a dedicated proxy (squid, etc.), that acts as an intermediate layer between the target PC and the router. It has a number of functions, but it can also log traffic sources and destinations (such as web sites). You can also use something like OpenDNS, which does some logging, and can filter various categories -- it does this by redirecting DNS lookups to "bad" sites. It requires that the target PC is pointed to OpenDNS for name resolution, however.