Wifi at work. What can they see?

JCB2020

why are you bothered - comply with your companies usage policy and it wont be a problem.

My company filters out suspect sites so yo cant get to them. I think the IT Dept will have better things to do than act a as a gatekeeper

mttylad

At a previous employer they had a proxy manager to monitor us, we simply bypassed it.

And they did not have the resources to monitor us properly, there was once an instance where someone got accused of using torrent downloading software - it turned out to be one of the IT staff themselves and the IT manager did not have a clue!

Notmyrealname

ben501 wrote: »

From potentially hundreds of people using laptops, mobiles, Ipads how could they know which one it was without physical inspecting every device in and around the premises?
I don't think many people use it the speeds pretty rubbish, or maybe lots of people use it and thats why its rubbish.

Each device has a MAC address which is unique to it. Each manufacturer is assigned a MAC address block so you can narrow it down.

If it is a company computer you're using, chances are that the MAC address for each computer is recorded, especially for a company with an IT department consisting of more than one person.

StuC75

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Each device has a MAC address which is unique to it. Each manufacturer is assigned a MAC address block so you can narrow it down.

If it is a company computer you're using, chances are that the MAC address for each computer is recorded, especially for a company with an IT department consisting of more than one person.

The OP states that the company is providing WIFI access (not necessarily the hardware).. Thus allowing staff to use there own pcs \ phones \ ipads to surf the internet. So unless the company have an audit of everyones OWN devices then they wouldnt know Who was doing someing.

Bogtrotter

If you've got a reasonable broadband uplink speed at home you could connect to a home machine over a secure shell and the IT department wouldn't have a clue what sites you're visiting never mind the content of the webpages.

phoneguy

I guess if you don't do anything you shouldn't do, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

BUT

If you DO things you know you should not, then you may want to bookmark the Job Centre web site ;-)

Seriously, when you are at work working, you work. Don't doss about on 'tinternet doing things you should not. It's not what anyone wants to hear, but it's what you should do.

diable

ben501 wrote: »

From potentially hundreds of people using laptops, mobiles, Ipads how could they know which one it was without physical inspecting every device in and around the premises?
I don't think many people use it the speeds pretty rubbish, or maybe lots of people use it and thats why its rubbish.

When you connect to the WiFi the IP and Mac address are logged, when you agree to the T&C's which no one bothers to read (it could include a claim for your first borns kidney when they reach 13) you then may have to enter your SID (System ID Number) or login which ties everything together. It depends on how deep they monitor the network and anything untoward may be flagged up on the system reports that are generated.

ben501

Still no clearer. some say it's safe some say not.

don't seem to have any clear usage rules. Had a passing comment from someone in I.T. once that we shouldn't be using personal emails - hotmail/gmail something to do with privacy rules -but there doesn't seem to be any 'official rules'

I thought using my own machine, I don't have a phone with internet, might be better than using works computers.

Don't want them to get my passwords any more than I'd give them to someone on here but if I could spend some of my free time at work doing some of my online stuff then it frees up time at home later.

diable

Its safe but don't do anything naughty.

IT staff at a certain level will have access to your C drive and network drive but as IT Professionals we don't snoop around even if we come across a folder named "Getting my Boobies Out in Benidorm" especially if the user is Bob Smith..........