Some companies (all except start ups I would have thought) will have a central server called a proxy server that they route all web requests from company computers through.  This server can log all those requests if necessary. The next question is if anybody is paying any attention...

Never surf hobby, porn or other inappropriate websites from work.

If I use the wi-fi at my work while surfing inappropriate sites like TER on my smartphone, can they trace it back to my cell phone # and bust me?

I"m not techie enough to answer that.  Why take a chance if you're worried about getting caught by your employer?  Not so sure I would try it.  You might innocently ask the techie where you work if they can see if someone is accessing the wi-fi at work from a smart phone, maybe tell him you want to access something like NFL mobile, or I-tunes, but don't want to if it's gonna get you in trouble.  

I think LEO would be the least of your worries in this situation.

Swim

Police can get those records with a warrant. But, you surfing sites don't mean anything unless they can connect something like an email address from one of those sites to a date proposal that you make.

It is a good idea to use various media when making a hobby date. Use your smartphone to surf, but have another phone that you don't use for surfing to make calls for date, or use email on a computer. I try to create degrees of separation between my real identity and my hobbying, that is the reason why I don't share my primary username with providers or anyone else.

The only exception to that is having a provider or agency call to verify. Smartphones can be connected to company's IT network and as a result, can have it's traffic tracked.

Some company landline phone systems are now connected to their IT network. Even landline phone traffic can be tracked. The probability of a hobbyist getting in trouble is remote, as long as commonsense is applied. Limit long distance calls and don't log excessive phone hours unless the hobbyist has a job that requires extensive phone communication. Once a person is in violation, a company's IT department is free to look into any and all traffic done on the phone.

Not concerned about LEO.  

Sometimes communication with providers is essential during the day.  Can't do it all that well at night with wife around.  Only reasonable way to do it at work is in my office with no satellite Internet signal.  I've seen other similar work environments that won't let you access certain sites on their wifi.  At the moment my place doesn't stop it.  I've actually been doing it for 4 months now without a problem but nonetheless still wonder if they could be tracking me and planning on busting me.

Thanks.

but IT depts can easily track traffic on their system.  Guys have been fired from 6 figure jobs over this.  
You should not use company equipment OR company network for adult activities...  unless you own the company & have no one to answer to.  Would a IT guy, screw the CEO by leaking adult activities to the BODs?  Is it worth the risk to find out?  
I'm assuming the company network is P/W protected, not open.  If you can find an open network somewhere, without adult blocking, should be fair game.  
skb

Not password protected.  It's a hospital with free wifi for patients and others.

Buy a tablet computer. It is easily set up for wifi. Ensure that it has a kill mouse that allows you to move the mouse out of a zone and immediately blank out the screen, you can move the mouse back into the zone when any interruptions are gone. If you have a desk, lock the tablet in that desk. Fire it up when you need to and quickly do what you want to do. You can buy a portable, secondary wifi antennea that would allow you to extend wifi signals into places that they normally are weak in, like quiet storage spaces away from the main hotspots. I suggest that you find several locations from which to use your tablet, the reason why is that wifi sigan picks can be registered by coordinate. You should't use your desk location, ever.

when I need to check TER or other sensitive web sites. I bring my own laptop, connect to the internet via my personal smartphone (tethered) and -- most importantly -- keep the laptop screen turned away from anyone who might walk by. That's about as safe as you can get, while still doing something risky.

Needless to say, I never use my work computer, company network, or any phone that has been provided to me by the company. They can definitely tell what you are doing if you use the company's wi-fi connection or any other technology provided by the company. They might not do anything about it, if you are a valued employee. The fact is, they see employees doing a lot of dumb shit at work and they usually let it slide. Until they decide, for whatever reason, that they want to fire you. Then your internet history will be made an issue and they will use it to burn you.

They probably cannot directly trace it to your phone number, unless you are sending emails or such that include it.  If so, it's fairly simple to dig your number out of the data stream with the right training and software.  

What they can trace it to is your MAC address.  This is how your phone identifies itself to the wireless access point, on a hardware level.  These can sometimes be traced back to a manufacturer, this might be traceable to the cell provider.  If they do get this far, submitting the MAC address to the provider might get your phone number, if they keep decent records.  

Realistically, LE doing that requires warrants and subpeonas.  This means they need to already have something on you, and the resource investment would probably require it to be a bigger deal than hobbying.  If LE goes this far, you were doing a lot more than visiting hobby sites.  I wouldn't worry about this happening if all you are doing is visiting TER or other sites.

Work might be a bigger issue.  Is it a work issued smartphone?  If so, you're screwed.  IT will have a list of MAC addresses and the people assigned those phones.  Catching you is utterly trivial at this point.  Even if it's a personal smartphone, they can issue a discreet instruction to security and/or management to keep an eye on people using personal smartphones at work.  This will take longer than with a work phone, but they will catch you.  There's still the issue of whether it's worth their time or not, but this will be a far lower hurdle than it would be for a police investigation.  

Individual WiFi connections are identifiable and traceable using something called a MAC ID (Media Access Control). This is a unique number assigned to each network interface card including WiFi interfaces. They may be able to identify what kind of cell phone is doing the access as the Mac address frequently does identify the manufacturer.

BUT they have to know the MAC ID for your phone to trace it to an individual cell phone. if it is a company phone, they will probably have the MAC address on file and they can identify you. I would definitely NOT use a company phone for this. If it is your own phone, they probably can't track you down. But don't let an administrator or IT guy from the hospital examine your phone if they ask because they can pull the Mac ID off it. This also applies to identifying access from laptops, iPads, etc.

(For example, to get the MAC address on my Android phone, I go into Settings, Wireless and networks, Wifi settings, and hit the name of the network I am connected to and I get my MAC address = xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx , six groups of two hexadecimal numbers.)

If you are very tech savvy, you can sometimes spoof the MAC address to transmit a different number, but I don't know if this can be done on a smartphone. BTW, changing the SIM card won't change your Mac address.

Safest is do not use a work phone to surf TER, use your own 3G/4g if you can, use wifi at a local coffee shop if you need wifi. Hospitals do monitor and track this stuff down.

Add an anonymizer service ($30-$60 per year) to your tablet. It scrambles the signal to the network, and as a proxy server. Thus, no one can see what you are surfing, nor where you are surfing (other than to the anonymizer service). Presuming that they can locate the user, all they can see is that you are using the free wifi (for visitors/patients), but not what you are doing with it. Make sure that there is no policy about employees using the visitor/patient wifi.

they could tell you are using TOR network but not what sites.
Similarly use the TOR browser on your computer for anonymous browsing.
Google it.

-- Modified on 1/6/2012 7:06:10 AM