Can anyone tell me - I hope I'm in the right forum here! - whether it is possible for somebody to remotely use a computer to send an email via its web browser? If this was possible would it leave a trace on the hard drive of the machine in question?

Thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,

This is indeed possible but is restricted by whether you actually have permission on the PC you are remotely accessing. For instance if both machines are running Windows XP you can use the built in Remote Desktop feature to control either PC remotely and send the email via the internet browser. If using older versions of Windows you can download this software here - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...rdclientdl.asp

I hope this helps, feel free to post back.

Thanks for that - but is it possible to do it without permission? - I don't by the way want to do this! - can a machine be operated remotely by a hacker etc. and would that leave traces?

I see, well yes there are vunrabilities in most systems which would allow a persistent hacker to compromise a users PC. Forgive me for guessing at this but are you concerned that your machine is emailing others without your permission? For example others are recieving emails which appear to be from you but you never sent them? This is quite common.

Yes - that's it exactly! It seems though that there are traces of this activity left on my hard drive - would this be usual too?

Hi,

Not sure exactly what you mean by traces left on your hard disk... There are a number of viruses, which if you PC picks up can email themselves to contacts in your email client. The other way this can happen which is more likely is that it is actually possible for other to send email which can appear to be from anyone. Without going into detail it is easy to do and an example would be when you get an email from say Ebay asking you to update your account info...its not from Ebay even though the email says from: accounts@ebay but from a rogue site which is trying to steal your account info.

Yes- I was aware of that kind of activity. The traces on my hard disk apparently indicate that an email was sent from this machine - that's why I was wondering if IP spamming or hijacking or other related activity such as I have indicated would make it look as if the machine itself has been used to generate the email rather than simply appear to have come form this source because it has the same IP?

Hi Mark,

Yes it is possible, it is difficult to comment without seeing the evidence on the PC but if your concerned about unauthorised activity on your machine you should make sure you have a firewall enabled.

Here are two free options for you:

Kerio Personal Firewall
Sygate Personal Firewall

Thanks for your help - much appreciated!

mark

Your welcome