Hello folks,<p>I need some help for a friend whose H is into porn on the internet. She has just realized the depth of his involvement.<p>Situation:<p>*They share a computer at home.
*There is only one password for the computer, only one email that she is aware of (LOL)that they both use.
*She has just discovered that there are hidden files. <p>Is there a way that she can figure out how to get into those files to see what they are?<p>Thanks,
Estes<p>[ June 04, 2002: Message edited by: Estes49 ]</p>

Hi Estes - to get a good answer, you have to know which version of Windows, where she thinks the files are, and what led her to think there are hidden files.<p>If the files simply have their "hidden attribute" set, the easiest way is:<p>

• From Windows Explorer or My Computer, use the View/Folder Options menu command, click the View tab, and then set check boxes to show hidden files and folders. click OK. (this is for 2000, other versions differ slightly, but you can still do this step through the Windows Explorer menus)
• Browse for the suspicious files.
• Use different sort options in Explorer to help the search. Sort by date shows which folders have been used recently - but don't rely on this because sub-folders can have newer dates that don't show up at the higher level. Sort by type can help pick out photos and videos. Sort by size can help pick out large files (video).
• Double-click on a suspicious file and see what opens up.

<p>She will need to un-do step 1, or else he'll know.<p>If the computer is running NT, 2000, or XP, it's possible there are other user accounts without her knowing. In that circumstance, it may have been possible to set permissions on the files so that she can't see them or access them.

Thanks a lot, tmmx,<p>I think she has Windows 2000. Not being extraordinaryly techno-savy myself and doing this 2nd hand for her is tricky.<p>I appreciate the help,
Estes

Heads up; just becasue there are files that are marked "hidden" does NOT mean he hid them. Normal PC/Windows systems have tons of hidden files by default.<p>Which files are "hidden", in what directories, where did she find them?<p>Best way to "snoop" a PC is using Spectorsoft's Spector, or another keystroke recording software. That way i'ts easy to track activity w/o having to get too technical.

If my H ever moves back home and I decided to get some keystroking software, etc., wouldn't he know that it was downloaded on the pc? Just curious.<p>Llama

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by llama:
<strong>If my H ever moves back home and I decided to get some keystroking software, etc., wouldn't he know that it was downloaded on the pc? Just curious.<p>Llama</strong><hr></blockquote><p>The good ones (spector, others) are very hard to detect, unless they are using software designed specifically to detect it. It does make the PC do weird things somethimes, though. (Slow, crash, etc.)

Spacecase,<p>I don't know the details about the files. I think I will recommend that she look into Spector to see what might be going on. Thanks for helping.<p>llama, I did a search on MB for the threads on porn and keystroke tracking. There are many of them. There are lots of programs out there that people who had used them recommended. I,like you, would be especially concerned that the other person would find out what you were doing and retaliate. Good luck.<p>Estes

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by llama:
<strong>If my H ever moves back home and I decided to get some keystroking software, etc., wouldn't he know that it was downloaded on the pc? Just curious.<p>Llama</strong><hr></blockquote><p>Llama, no, he won't know because it is completely invisible and he can't access it unless he knows the EXACT CODE WORD to type in 'run.' And even then you have to input a password. I use Starr and it works great, no freezes, no crashes, no evidence.

Estes, one that can't be detected is Starr home version at www.iopus.com. However, when she installs it she needs to pay for it because the trial version will have a pop up reminder when the computer is restarted. It needs to be installed in the 'invisible' mode and costs $40.

MelodyLane,<p>This sounds like just what she needs. I'll send the info to her. Thanks.<p>Estes

Another vote for Iopus.<p>The Iopus software, if installed in stealth mode, won't mess with your registry or leave other tell-tale marks behind. There's literaly 2 or 3 files that you can copy anywhere on the computer from a floppy disk and rename anything. Under NT or 2000, it will show up in the task manager under processes, but if you rename it to something weird and obscure - it will just look just like one more arcane file running in the background.<p>I used it for years with my husband and he never caught on until I fessed up in recovery with that darn radical honesty thing [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img] <p>Both of us are extremely computer proficient, but he more so than I, so I had to make sure that he'd not catch it.

We use starr from www.iopus.com too. Have for over a year now. It has not caused any problems to our systems at all. <p>Infact we installed it on our children's computers too. After we caught the boys snooping on porn sites we let them know that we can see EVERYTHING they do on the computer. They are freaked out and cannot figure out how. lol<p>It does show in the 2000, XP, NT register so heed the advice from Bramblerose if you H is pretty computer literate.

You know what I did? Being a little pc illiterate way back when all of this started?<p>I went to "find" on the search thingie and I typed in all kinds of dirty words, the "f-word," the names for body-parts that would be used in porn-sites and some ugly words for sexuality. I also typed in some female names that I had suspicions about.<p>I came up with basically everything my husband had been looking at and participating in and who he had been corresponding with for months.<p>That's how I discovered his affair. (By typing in the name "Melissa.")

Hi Again, Estes - any of that monitoring stuff can be detected. It depends on how savvy her H (or perhaps a friend of his) may be. <p>Bernzini has a good idea. It's cheaper, less obtrusive, and could answer the question of how big the problem is. Your friend can search for files like *.jpg, *.gif, *.mpg, *.rm, and so forth.<p>Monitoring might be considered later, to track ongoing involvement, or to collect specific information.

Good morning everybody,<p>Your advice is helpful to lots of folks besides myself, I'm sure. Thanks.<p>BR and Z, thanks for the vote of confidence for iopus.<p>Bernzini, your approach makes sense. I'll suggest that. <p>It all makes sense looking back. The H is an engineer who has always professed bewilderment about using the computer. It never sounded right, an engineer who was not a technophile. Turns out he is most likely playing dumb to keep her clueless. He "can't" help her learn to use her computer, because he doesn't understand the intricacies. Phooy, he doesn't want her to learn so she won't sutmble across what he is doing. Too bad; she did. The problem is that this guy is so slick that he cleans the computer of all evidence (that we can find) after EVERY session on the computer.<p>When we looked in my friend's temp files, there were tons of *gif and *jpg files. When she clicked on them, a message came up to the effect that - You are about to open a systems file. This could cause problems.- or something like that, so we didn't open them. Can systems files in temp storage be safely opened so she can see what they are?<p>Also, do pop-ups put photo and video put cookies on your computer even if you only click on them to turn them off? I know that lots of these files get put on your computer without your doing anything with them.<p>Got to take the cat to the vet, but will be back later. I appreciate everyone's input. I love to solve puzzles, so this sleuthing is fulfilling for me.<p>BTW, we stumbled across an unusual location to find a history. That's how she found a long list of porn sites. Tell you about that when I get back.<p>Estes

Hi Estes - a lot of stuff leaves cookies, but those are very easy to clean up. <p>It's okay to open a "system" file that you are sure is GIF or JPG. It sounds like he spoofed it anyway. Is there an issue regarding the specific type of porn?<p>Did she find the stuff in her own temp directory? Are the files old or recent? It almost sounds like he "messed up" by surfing while logged in as your friend, and thus didn't clean up properly. If the files are old and not updated recently, that's probably what happened.<p>She has more than enough to confront him and see if he will change this behavior. Moving the history and spoofing the photos is really a smoking gun; it's obvious he deceived her about his computer skills. I'm not sure what the point is to further snooping at this point. She shouldn't try to make this into a contest. <p>If he denies what she found so far, that's really a separate issue.

Let me clarify:<p>Iopus Starr WILL show up in the registry if you install it using the Iopus installer.<p>It will NOT show up in the registry if you simply copy over the few core files into a directory and rename them.<p>Instructions must be read VERY carefully to do this.<p>On NT based systems (this includes 2000) it will show up in the task manager even with a minimal manual installation as I described above. This is why it's important to make sure you rename the files and then make sure you adjust the settings in the preferences to reflect the rename.<p>Then get a web based email account, and have the logs emailed to that account, to get the logs OFF your system and password protected.

This is getting complicated, guys. I wish she could communicate directly. She won't sign on to MB from her computer or search questionable web sites because he might find out.<p>BR, I'm not sure I could even help her with all that you describe!<p>What does "spoofed" mean, tmmx? She is not looking for a specific type of porn, just what the depth of his obsession is. I'm naively embarrassed to admit that I don't know what you mean by specific type. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img] Yes, she found the temp files and the cookies and knows how to control the history. <p>She's afraid to begin making too many changes because he might notice. She's even more techo-ignorant than I am and is likely to overlook something that would alert him. Since she became suspicious a few days ago, she has noticed he is up in the middle of the night on the computer. The main issue is not so much the porn and their M. It's more serious than that. <p>The other day we stumbled on to a strange type of history. Maybe you know about it and can explain it to me. My friend is taking a college class that requires the Netscape browser to access the professor's web site for class. I was showing her how to set Netscape as her home page. When I typed in www., an alphabetized history menu appeared automatically. There was a long list of sites that were obviously porn by their titles. We have not tried to access any of them. So my question is, why is there an alphabetized URL history in that location. They were NOT typed in as options for homepages. Her H has been very careful about everything else as there is never any history, no temp files, and no cookies. I came home and found out that the same thing happened on my computer. <p>Did you folks who know your way around a computer know that this info is available? Seems like it would be a tricky way to see what sites somebody had been to since most people wouldn't even think to look there or clear it. Next question, how would one clear that list? I tried and didn't get anywhere. I'm really interested to hear what you have to say about that URL list and why it is there.<p>You guys are great, thanks.<p>Estes<p>[ June 06, 2002: Message edited by: Estes49 ]</p>

Hi Estes - I don't use Netscape anymore, but in IE6, the Tools/Internet Options menu command, then the Clear History button, takes care of that list in the address bar.<p>By "spoofing", I meant that he apparently associated gif and jpg files as something else, so that bogus message about "system files" came up. They are not system files. They can be in a system folder, but the warnings would have been different.<p>To BR - if someone is checking and savvy enough, an unknown task or process name will raise a big red flag. Anything that starts automatically has to leave tracks. Likewise, it's not hard to track the wife sending stuff to a remote email account.<p>Back to Estes, there are certain "types" that law enforcement would be interested in. You seem to be leaning that way in your suspicions, now. For that reason, and the apparent mismatch in computer skills, I wonder if she needs to pursue this a different way.

Estes, I don't think it's really that complicated. Since they use the same computers she doesn't need the reports mailed anywhere so there wouldn't be that footprint. You could DL the software onto a floppy [or ZIP] on YOUR computer and install it on her computer. It really is so easy. After she reads the reports she would need to delete the history in Netscape. My H is a pretty savvy software engineer and he has never detected the software in a year.