[SOLVED] Work Pc in a home network

[DumbBlondGuy]

I'm going to work from home soon. I will plug my work pc into my home network.

Now I still use a cable connection. The plan is to swap the cable before and after work.

I'm a bit worried regarding my privacy. Will my employer be able to access or monitor my browsing history on my private computer.

Some googling showed that it's possible to set up so that the modem takes logs of all connections on the network. I tried accesing my modem settings. I opened cmd, entered ipconfig and put the number under default gateway into the browser. It timed out.

I received my modem from my internet provider and never really tinkered with it. I suspect they disabled this feature to idiot proof their system from users such as myself. If so then fine. If I can't access it then no one else should be able to do it. However there is also the possibility that I did something wrong. Could anyone offer advice?

 

[anotherdrew]

@DumbBlondGuy
They are good questions.

Most routers do minimal logging (especially ISP provided models). Mostly they log errors and not traffic that works fine. If they did, the logs would fill up very fast. Also, if you can't access the router (which in most cases is password protected and thus even harder to access) then it is unlikely your work can.

If your computer and your work computer are not plugged into the network at the same time then, they can not exchange information . The only way for your work to monitor your activity in this scenario would be to upload monitoring software onto your personal computer (and since the 2 computers can't communicate, that would be challenging). That would essentially constitute hacking your personal computer and I suspect that is illegal (unless you signed something ?? ... yeah, I'm not a lawyer).

I understand your concern, but as long as the two computers are never on the network at the same time, you are fairly safe.

 

[bill001g]

Can you see other peoples data at work ? For the same reason you can't see what other users at your work are doing the company can not see anything being done on your personal equipment. Lets say you wanted to monitor your kids usage. It is almost impossible for you to use your pc to monitor theirs even when you have full control of everything. It would have to be done on the router and most traffic is encrypted so it would show very little. They have no access to your modem or router....It appears you don't really either so its not like they are going to have more access than you.

The only thing they would be able to see is if you used works machine to actually do something on your home network. If for example you copied files from a local share or watch some video from a local nas.

Generally it is the company network that is at risk. If you had malware on your home machine and it could use your connection to the office it could bypass their firewalls and attack the internal servers.

Most time access is done by VPN and as soon as the vpn tunnel comes up the work machine is completely isolated from your home network. This prevent issues in both directions.

 

[DumbBlondGuy]

Thank you both for the answers. I suspected it's not as easy as that but wanted to ask someone more knowlegable.