How to Use Router to Monitor Which Websites are Visited

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Lately, many readers have asked how to use a router to monitor which websites are visited on different devices? If you and your family members or friends share the same Wi-Fi network, you can easily know which websites they are visiting. In this way, you can easily track their internet activities and that too without letting them know. To help you do the same, we have come up with this stepwise tutorial. Read on and learn how to use a router to monitor which websites are visited by others.

Quick Navigation

How to use router to monitor which websites are visited

Using router’s website

Using OpenDNS

Conclusion

How to use a router to monitor which websites are visited

It might surprise you, but you can configure your router in such a way that it will maintain a log of all the websites visited via the shared network. Therefore, after accessing the log, you can view the websites visited by your family members or friends with whom you share the Wi-Fi network. You can do this by using a third-party tool or accessing the log files from the router’s website. We have listed a solution for both cases.

Using router’s website

Firstly, let’s learn how to use a router to monitor which websites are visited right from the router’s website. You can log-in to your router’s website using your credentials and access the log files.

For instance, if you are using a Netgear router, you can visit its smart wizard by accessing its web dashboard. Here, you can see the “Logs” section and get to know about different websites that are visited through the network.

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You can do the same for a Cisco router as well. Go to the Cisco router dashboard and visit its Administrator > Logs. Make sure that the logging option is “Enabled”. Afterward, you can click on the “View” button to access a complete log of all the websites visited through the network on a respective device.

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A similar technique can be applied to other routers as well. All the popular routers have a dedicated web dashboard that can be used to access the log of visited websites. This will let you learn how to use a router to monitor which websites are visited.

Using OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a freely-available solution that can help you perform various operations regarding your router and network. With it, you can manage your network settings in one place. You can also use it to learn how to use the router to monitor which websites are visited. Since it supports multiple networks, you need to add your network once to get its log. It can be done by following these instructions:

1
To start with, you need to visit OpenDNS website and create an account. Afterward, you can log-in and click on the “Add a network” option.

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2
This will start the setup wizard for your network. Provide your IP address to add a network.

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3
Now, go to its Basic > Network > Static DNS option and fill these slots with your static DNS entries.

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4
To turn on the logging feature, go to Status > Logs and ensure the relevant log entries are checked.

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It would also be best if you turned on the option for both inbound and outbound logging.
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There is also a "Logging Configuration" option that can be accessed to customize your network's log settings.
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Since the log entries will display the IP address of the visited websites, you need to use a third-party tool to make this conversion.
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Install the Wall Watcher application on your system and provide your IP address while setting up the wizard.
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Access the Wall Watcher app and go to its “Loggings” tab. From here, enable the option for converting IP addresses to URLs.

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That’s it! You can simply access all the logs from its interface. As you can see, the application will automatically convert the IP address to its respective URL.

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Conclusion

In this way, you would learn how to use the router to monitor which websites are visited through a network. You can choose your choice and keep an eye on your family and friends' internet activities with this technique. Furthermore, to track their devices, you can also use a spying app like mSpy. A highly comprehensive app, it will let you track their location, call logs, social media apps, messages, and more remotely and without getting detected.

VISIT MSPY

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