Routers
 

I think this question is most suitable for this board. What I'm curious is: can/do routers record internet activity? The routers you stick on to your cable connection so you can hook a phone service up to it...that kind of router. I'm extremely paranoid when it comes to internet privacy, so I was wondering, do routers track/detect/record internet activity or is its only purpose to send signals where they need to go?

Much love.

Routers keep a log of all outgoing and incoming IP requests. Technically someone could access your router remotely and read this log, but they would have to either hack it or know the password. The log is kept for your convenience.

Thanks Johnny!

Are you 100% sure though, because I am very, very paranoid? If you put a 100% "surance" rate on that, I'll quell the paranoia. I promise.

Also, the log of IP requests, would that should past URLs visited and where/how would I access this log?

Most routers won't keep a table of ips for long - Most not at all in fact... There is an IP table that keeps track of how to route traffic - But its rare to find a router that will record network access - atleast for home based routers.

Might wanna try reposting this in the computer section for more input.

Well, the outbound IP requests will necessarily translate to root domains, whether it's HTTP, SMTP, NNTP, etc.

HTTP just means the Internet, and usually the WWW areas. So an IP address will lead to "www.yahoo.com" but won't lead to "www.yahoo.com/goatsex" or whatever.

SMTP is just an email protocol, so the IP request will lead to the server with that IP. You won't be able to discern who is contacting the IP or what they're transferring back and forth, if all you have is the IP. This is not to be confused with web mail (like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail) which still goes through HTTP.

NNTP is Usenet newsgroups, and again, it just points to the server, not specific newsgroups.

The log table only records the most recent requests, up to say 50 kilobytes worth. That may be hours or days depending on the traffic.

You can access your router directly by entering its IP address in a Web browser. The IP is specific to your brand, though, so you'll have to look it up in your manual. From there, with most routers these days, you can configure all router settings. This can only be accessed by someone on the router's internal network.