Concerned about someone finding out where you've been on the net?

Here's how to reduce the chances that your net travels will be traced.

Browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer are designed to leave traces behind indicating where you've been and what you've been looking at on the Internet. It's hard to absolutely guarantee that your travels on the Internet can't be traced at all, but here are some simple things you can do to reduce the chances that someone can look through your computer and find out what you've been reading.

In general, you want to erase two different things after you've left Kathleen Mary House and/or any other site that you don't want traced.

One is the "cache" where the computer stores copies of files you've looked at recently with your browser. This will be a directory that will have various files stored in it. You will want to erase all of those files. The second thing you need to erase is your History list. This will be a single file containing the addresses of the places you've recently visited.

Use the links on the left to find out how to remove these traces for the particular web-browser that you are using. If you are not sure what browser you using do the following:

Internet Explorer Version 6.0

Step 1 - Temporary Internet Files and Cookies

• From the Menu bar choose Tools
• Select Internet Options
• Click Delete Cookies button
• In the pop-up box, Click Ok to Delete
• Click Delete Files button
• In the pop-up box, place a check to delete offline content and click OK
• Click Ok when IE is done
• Your Temporary Files and Cookies are removed

Step 2 - Clear Your History

• From the Menu bar choose Tools
• Select Internet Options
• Click Clear History Button
• In the pop-up box, Click Yes to delete
• Click Ok when IE is done
• Your History has been removed

Netscape Version 8.1

Option One - Automatic Clearing Setup

• From menu bar select Tools
• Choose Options
• Choose Privacy
• Check Clear My Tracks on Exit option (near top)
• Click Ok button
• Now when exiting Netscape, all tracks will be removed automatically

Option Two - Manual Clearing

• From menu bar select Tools
• Choose Options
• Choose Privacy
• Click Clear All button (near top)
• Click Ok button
• Your internet tracks have been removed

Netscape (previous versions)

Step 1 - Clear The Cache

• Open the EDIT menu
• choose PREFERENCES
• choose ADVANCED
• choose CACHE
• click on the buttons, "Clear Memory Cache" and "Clear Disk Cache."
• After Clearing both, Click OK
• Your cache will now be cleared

Step 2 - Clear The History

• Open the EDIT menu
• choose PREFERENCES
• choose NAVIGATOR
• Select the "Clear History" button
• Click OK
• Your history list will now be erased

Step 3 - Clear Location Bar List

• Open the EDIT menu
• choose PREFERENCES
• choose NAVIGATOR
• Click "Clear Location Bar" (bottom of window)
• Click OK
• Your location bar information will now be erased

Mozilla FireFox Version 1.5

Opera Version 8.5

Other Browsers

Other browsers will be slightly different in the detail of what's required to do these two things. But in any case, what you'll need to do is clear your cache (or "temporary files") and erase your history list. If you have trouble locating the places to remove these things, always go to the Help menu and search for "History" - it will usually point you to the correct place.

**NOTE** This is not a 100% guarantee that your browsing can't be traced. Anyone with a decent amount of computer sophistication will still be able to reconstruct your net travels. The basic idea is to make it more difficult for someone to know where you've been.

Additional Tips

When you clear the cache and the history list, you erase not only the information on where you've been, but any other information that had been previously stored there. So, if your partner checks and sees that the cache and the history list have been completely emptied, he'll not only know that you know how to do this, but he might guess that you're trying to hide something.

One possible way to avoid suspicion is to clear the cache and history once you're done looking at information you don't want your partner to know about. After they're cleared, spend some time visiting sites that you think your partner wouldn't object to. This way, the cache and history list start to get filled up and your partner might be less likely to notice that old information is missing.

Tools

Alternate Web Browsers

Cache and History Removal Software