DescentBB

Hi,

I'm looking for ways to view my daughters laptop screen from my PC without her knowing or seeing there is remote software installed. She's not stupid but she's aware of icons in tasktray. Long story as to why I have to do this but it has to do with her safety from her real father.

Any ideas? Thanks

Viewing it live? I'd suggest installing VNC on her machine for a simple solution (though you may have to do something about the system tray icon).

Or viewing locally-taken screenshots later? There are a number of products out there to do that.

Yeah I want live. I'll check out VNC later.

Run vnc as a service, I believe it is possible to hide the tray icon that way as well. Also when it connects, default the connecting machine to not send inputs or she will know something is up when her mouse cursor moves on its own.

What Krom said works

Thanks guys. I thought I remembered VNC allowed running as a service but I don't get to have her PC often as she's always home. Will do it the next time she's out.

Thanks

By the way...

CDN_Merlin wrote:Long story as to why I have to do this but it has to do with her safety from her real father.

You're the one who is trying to protect your daughter. That puts you as the "real father", in my book.

Foil, I know what you are saying, I meant her biological father. I know I'm the best dad she has since her real one is a criminal. Sadly he doesn't see/understand the damage he's doing to her.

Is this something that you can talk with her about, or at least notify her? I don't know all of the specifics, but generally openness & honesty is the best policy. Talk to her about what you're concerned about - if it goes well, then she'll help you. If it goes poorly, then I'd openly monitor her; if she doesn't like it, she at least knows why you're doing it and you don't have to worry about her being mad about both your intrusion and your deception.

If she finds out, it won't go well, and chances are she will find out. IMO stuff like that breaks trust... and trust should be a goal.

IMO (as a foster father) the "real" father is the one that gets up at night and changes poopy diapers, and the one that puts food on the table for her, and the one that puts her to bed at night.

Speaking from experience, if the paternal father is contacting the child and trying to cause problems by bad mouthing either you or your wife, put an end to it now. They try to justify their actions and lack by convincing the child it is someone else's fault. If that's the case, do everything you can to bring the truth out in the open. I'd suggest a meeting of you, your wife, your child and the absentee father. Hard to lie when all parties involved are sitting right there. If you hope for the best like I did, it will come back to bite you in the ass.

Problem is she still loves her father and doesn't wasn't to know how he put his g/f in the hospital. She doesn't know what he's capable of. He tried to drown his g/f while she was the at march break. We've started a restraining order but it takes time. We've emailed him yesterday telling him not to contact her.

It's a tough situation and she's the innocent party. We always tell her the truth and the day is coming fast where she will have to learn first hand what her father is like and why the courts won't allow her to have contact with him.

Yeah, been there. Best thing is if she knows exactly who he is. Don't shield her, it's unfortunate but's that's her circumstances. What happens is his guilty mind and her naivety work against her.

She lived it with her mom (my wife) but doesn't remember it all. She does remember the tempers.

Secretly monitoring people is what trojans are for.

I don't want trojans on my network.

lets just say that any antivirus software worth it's salt will detect any program you wish to install that will have the feature-set you have requested (ie: covert surveillance), coz the feature set seems kinda indistinguishable from a trojan.
And unfortunately, you're probably not going to be able to install a trojan on your daughter's pc without your conscience biting the moral bullet that you are indeed "installing a trojan on your daughter's pc", coz that's kinda... exactly what you'll be doing. With all of the feelings of invasions of privacy included. It is what it is.

Not railing on ya, i just want you to understand that this is exactly what you will be doing, and it may even be why you are resisting the label "trojan". But a rose by any other name will smell as sweet.

(man this thread makes me uncomfortable)

I don't consider RealVNC a trojan. Also, I have every right to snoop at her online activity. She has parental controls on her laptop. What we are trying to see is if he will break the rules on the restraining order by contacting her. This will give us more leverage in getting him locked up and put away where he should be. He is a very mean spirited person who has done nothing but bad mouth us, corrupted his daughter and every time she comes back from visiting him, we have to spend a week deprogramming her because she gets attitude like he has. We have found out many things that would happen when she would visit him that would make people's skin crawl. We always knew it but had no proof. Well, beating his g/f almost to death started the whole process of him losing access to his daughter.

Merlin, I don't know how accessible the judges are where you live, but I found you can usually catch them intheir chambers working when court is not in. I had great success pinning them up and privately discussing matters with them. If you convince him of your plight, you can usually get them to act favorably towards you. It's worth a shot.

CDN_Merlin wrote:I don't consider RealVNC a trojan.

nor do i, it's not covert.

Flip, sadly our courts are over busy. We have certain days to see them in court and that is it. Our court date is end of July for the restraining order. It's really sad we have to be doing this. It really sucks for her.

Alright yeah, if you alredy have a court date, they won't talk to you anyways. I got custody of my oldest daughter that way eventually, but you can't be on the court docket. I sat outside the courtroom on off days and would catch them in the hall. It helps for them to have a little prior data before a court date .

He lives in another province and already has a criminal record for his abuse on my wife. So there is little change the judge will say no. Children's services are on board also. We are doing everything legit because she is better without him in her life.

So I installed VNC and sadly it keeps an icon in the tasktray. So that's a no go. It did the job but I can't have anything showing. I did have it running as a service but still had the icon. Off to more searching again.

Ah, looks like you're right. RealVNC icon can be hidden when inactive, but always is shown for an active connection: [link]

I'm pretty sure at the time I was using UltraVNC, and there was no icon when installed as a service.

Yes, I saw that also Flip, I've downloaded it but have to wait for another time when she is out of the house for a bit.

There is another method you can also use. OpenDNS offers website monitoring and blocking features for free. Sign up for an account, and add your network. Then place these DNS numbers, 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 to her IPV4 properties. Just remember to remove them from your own computer afterwards. No sense of recording your own movements.