Internet Lifeguard:

Where did they surf?

The ability to find out where someone has been on the Internet while on your computer is made easy by two features that most browsers have.  You will remember that a browser is a program that allows us to view WebPages on the Internet.  These features are the History and Cache Files.  The history keeps track of all the WebPages your browser has visited.  This makes it easy to find previous WebPages that you want to get back to.  The cache files or The Temporary Internet Files folder is the location on your hard disk where Web pages and files (such as graphics) are stored as you view them. This speeds up the display of pages you frequently visit or have already seen, because the browser can open them from your hard disk instead of from the Web.

The following information and illustrations are intended to give you the ability, using the History and Cache Files to find where your kids or others have been on the Internet while on your computer.  This information is based on using the two main Internet Browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

This is something that you need to learn to do and then practice so that you can do it easily.  You should make it clear to those using the computer that you will be checking where they have been from time to time.  This lets them know that if they go somewhere that they should not go, they will be discovered.  This alone should help discourage any  deliberate misuse of  the Internet.  However, make it clear that if they accidentally go to an inappropriate area, they are to notify you that it has happened.  This will allow you the opportunity to further educate the user of how to protect themselves and to help you tighten what safety features you have in place.  However, a computer savvy teenager may know how to clear the history and cache files.  Therefore check frequently enough so that if there is not much information in the history and cache files, you would know that these files have been tampered with.  This would let you know that you have a problem and that you need to change or tighten the safety features you are using.  Keep in mind that there are adjustable time limits that each of the browsers put on their history and cache files.  If you don’t check within the time frame and/or there has not been any Internet use during that time frame it would look as if someone had cleared the history or cache.  The default is normally 2-3 weeks for history and the cache is based on an allotted hard drive space.  You should use your browsers Help Menu to get detailed instructions on how to check and /or increase these limits.

Internet Explorer		Netscape Navigator
History		History
Web Addresses		Web Addresses
Cache Files		Cache Files