The Internet is a necessary tool for students and workers, but it can also be a place to waste time or access inappropriate content. Computer administrators, parents, teachers, or bosses may want or need to check the website access history on a computer to monitor the activity of children, students, or employees.

Browser history

The simplest way to monitor the history of Internet activity on a computer is to check the history log of the computer's Internet browsers. Popular browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox are set up by default to save a log of all the websites recently visited. To check the history log in IE, open the program, click on the star icon on the upper left side of the window and then click on the "History" tab. In Firefox, open the program, click on the "History" menu and select "Show All History." If the person using the computer wants to hide his activities, there is a good chance he will delete the browser history. If you notice that there are no items under the history of the browser after it has been used, the last user deleted the history files.

Other methods

There are a couple other ways to check on Internet history. One way is to look at the Internet tracking cookies websites deposit on visitors' computers. Checking cookies may require you to enable viewing hidden files; to do this in Windows XP, open a Windows Explorer window, click the "Tools" menu, choose "Folder Options," then on the "View" tab choose "Show hidden files and folders." For Vista click "Start," "Control Panel," "Folder Options," click the "View" tab and tick the radio button next to "Show hidden files and folders," then uncheck the boxes called "Hide protected operating system files" and "Hide extensions for known file types." You'll find both cookies and temporary Internet files in the "Windows" directory. You can use the search feature on your computer to locate the cookies folder once hidden folders are visible. There are also third-party Internet security programs designed to monitor Internet history. Internet security is a big concern for parents, so many software developers have released parental control, or nanny, programs to monitor or block content on the Internet.

Wireless routers

If you connect to the Internet wirelessly it may be possible to check the recent Web traffic of other users connected to your router. This can be useful if you suspect there is someone piggybacking on your wireless signal or if you want to monitor the activity of a child or someone else that you gave permission to use the wireless network. To check recent history, log in to your router's administrative panel and search for Internet history options. Routers will differ in the options they offer; some routers may not have the ability to log and display recently visited websites. If your router has the ability to show recently visited websites it will likely be listed under the wireless security setup area of your router's menus.

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