A pretty strange question.
 

Hello,
I have a question that probably doesent have much to do with linux , but this was the best forum i could come up with to ask my question.

The question is :

I have a comp on my room , and i have a dad that likes to control the whole system here. Things like putting on and off the internet connection on planned times ( using a mac adres i found out a few weeks ago) thats pretty annoying but not the thing that annoys me most. Cause my dad happens to know things he shouldent be able to know. Is it possible that my dad can see my msn messages?

He uses linux ,and a switch for the internet connection, i hope i have given enough information to answer my question.

Thanks in advance..

Cause my dad happens to know things he shouldent be able to know. Is it possible that my dad can see my msn messages?
Well, there's stuff like keylogging, sniffing or log reading. Before you jump to conclusions ask yourself if it's possible he could have found out in other ways. Ask yourself if you have given any reasons for him to do this (trust?). Parents (are supposed to) care about their children, some can be too protective for having totally no clue what the online world offers or having too much clues indeed ;-p. That's why you should talk about the reasons with him. This may be hard to do but in your position trying to evade or hide more will show one way or the other (after all they got a headstart with stuff like life experience and all that). Try to focus on the reasons why he's doing this. If you show you can be trusted and are responsable (as in actions, not words) he should turn around over time. Now if this is about really serious stuff he should not know about anyway then maybe you should use a computer in another location. Encrypting comms may look like the answer but it will only provide another signal something is going on, provide him with a challenge and solve nothing IMHO.


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I have a question that probably doesent have much to do with linux , but this was the best forum i could come up with to ask my question.
It's not about Linux but basically about the parent-child relationship and trust.
It should have been in /General, IMHO.

I'm not a fan of parents spying on their teenagers. Everyone has a right to some degree of privacy. With that said, teens do need to be monitored somewhat. How and how much would be key questions.

Are you doing something you shouldn't be doing? Instant messaging is not private and can be logged at both ends. You should always be on quard about the things you say. These messages can come back to haunt you!

How do you know what he shouldn't be able to know? There are levels of trust associated with any network connection. First, consider if your machine itself is trusted. Do you have full control? Is there any way to know if he (your dad) has access to the machine while you're not there? If so, your machine is not fully trusted (i.e., there is a possibility that each and every key you type is recorded). Next, consider the network. As you already said he controls the network (i.e., to get from your machine to the internet, you need to go through his linux gateway). Thus, the network is untrusted (i.e., there is a possibility that each and every packet is recorded). The internet as a whole is considered `untrusted'. While it is very difficult for a single individual to sniff your network packets from outside the internet, large ISP's may be doing it to you right now (e.g., AT&T -> NSA). Also, at the other end (your buddy), the same trust scheme applies (just in reverse).

If you cannot trust your computer/network, then it is your responsibility to safeguard yourself (this applies in your house, at school, at work, the real world, etc.). E.g., if I am on an untrusted network, I would use some sort of encryption. Since you are on an untrusted computer (as I presume), encryption would be of no benefit. In that case, the safest thing would be to assume everything you say is being monitored. So don't say anything you would later regret.

IMHO, you have bigger problems than securing a communication channel with someone over the internet. If such a degree of distrust exists between you and your parents, I suggest working it out.

Thanks for the reactions

I know enough :)


I do have a safe computer For as far that's possible with a xp system. I have very long passwords containing a lot of random digits. So unless he's secretly on my room and has a way to bypass those passwords he cant get on my comp. Next to that i doubt that he would do that, the chances of getting caught would be to big.


And iam positive this is the only way he could find out.
But i have the solution, i just call somebody if i need to talk to em about something cause i dont think he's gonna tap the phone:D


He's also doing something else with the internet connection here , and i was wondering if i could do something about it. I had found out a while ago he used my MAC adres to turn on and off the internet on planned times. i have a schedual here , with the commands on it. Maybe someone knows how to prevent that stuff.

these are the commands :

30 * * * sel_ip_frwrd --add=19
30 12* * * sel_ip_frwrd --del=19

those are tw lines from my sisters schedual. the first part is representing the minutes , hours, days , weeks , months.

2 lines from my schedual:

31 8 * * * sel_ip_frwrd --add=20
30 12 * * * sel_ip_frwrd --del=20



I dont ask those questions because i dont like my dad, But i dont give any reason for distrust. And those internet times are just so childish :) i wont rest before i get those off lol.

Thanks for the reply's :)

you can do things that gets you past your dad today but what abt tommorow? He'll surely know what you have been doing and what you've been upto (don't ask me how but just trust me he can and he will). your best chances are to negotiate with your dad abt the internet hrs and convince him to give you more leverage.

He obviously has admin rights on the router you use, the only way to get round this is to configure it yourself but he would only find out in the end and probably ban you from the internet all together. Any of the good routers I have used you can block certain websites in the config and alot of other things. You are better off trying to work with your dad on this one rather than sneak behind his back, as far as logging your MSN conversations then I wouldnt worrie too much, your dad isnt called James Bond..is he, ex KGB maybe? although its all possible same with the phone tapping, its highley unlikely but then again we dont know your dad.

Until you can afford sattelite broadband maybe getting online at least some of the time isnt too bad.

Mike

Personally (as a father and all that) I think that four hours
a day of internet access for a kid at school is abundant. :}


Cheers,
Tink

Well i know for sure we dont use a router , he has a switch, so is there anyway i could change my mac adress to my mom's so i'll have the same acces as her?( read: complete acces)

you can ofcourse spoof mac but the thing is he will know/find-out one way or other. My guess is you won't last even a day. Then when your father finds out this how do you think he'll react? If you don't care less, you are insulting your fathers' authority, which is a very bad thing to do. 4 hrs of internet access for just plain fun is more than enough.

already spoofed it once he diddent notice till my sister told him , and PLEASE . stop giving those parenting responses, very nice to be concerned. but i dont need that, i just asked a question and if you have no solution i dont see a point in responding with something that has been said already by 6 other people

In that case consider this thread as closed; I've reported it (again, someone else
had reported it before but we mods decided to let it slip) since you're planning to
abuse the connection of the legal owner against his expressed wishes which is illegal,
and asking the question or supporting you with a solution that suits you is against
our rules that you agreed to.



Cheers,
Tink

Yeah, looking through the thread, I would imagine that at some point your dad will post here and complain about the fact that we are helping you to circumvent his reasonable endeavours to stop you living on the internet.

Closed.