Hi, everyone,

If I belong to a message board community and am not at that site, can people know I am online ( do not have Instant Messaging)? Orf suppose I am online to take a course - can anyone online know I am online?

I'm no expert, but I think if you are not logged onto a message board site, no one from the boards will see you online.

As for taking an online course and other people being able to "see" you online, I doubt it.

You might want to check your Internet security settings. If it's set to a low security level, I'd consider raising it. How you adjust that depends on what browser you're using.

seaturtle:

 Hi, everyone,

If I belong to a message board community and am not at that site, can people know I am online ( do not have Instant Messaging)? Orf suppose I am online to take a course - can anyone online know I am online?

No. Unless you're logged in to community or site, no one will know you're online. If you're at the site but not logged in, the software might recognize you from cookies already on your computer, but your name won't show up anywhere and any gadget that says "online" or "offline" won't detect you. 

Only if your neighbors are hackers.  I know for a fact that Cuz's computer is set up to access the system of the convenience store he leases out, and his nephew's computer as well--the nephew is extremely computer-proficient and installed it all. My anti-spyware has found Netscape browser attachments on my laptop--and I don't use Netscape, but he does.  Just in case you haven't seen this nasty piece of news, the top sources of malware on line no longer are porn and games.  Now the most dangerous Web searches are for "free software", "work at home", and the ever-popular "free screensaver".  

I keep a good-quality bought software on my machine, and have additional privacy add-ons.  If you have serious concerns, install Tor--it's free, and it will hide and reroute your IP.

 Thanks for the informtion about malware. Such a shame that the Net has become a place we have to protect ourselves in.

I will download that program. I guess it can't hurt.

unless your the host of the website you won't have to be seen but since you are not the host they have the soft ware to do that and controls then you will be seen on the site you are at,other wise post all you like you might have a setting from the site read the policy of the site next time you read for the rules and reglation they give some settings like here for the e-mails and stuff.

 
This is an interesting discussion.. thank you for sharing.

 
pret auto

 Hi

if you are not log into messenger,you won't seems to be online, but untill there is no feature of chat and sms in website, like Yahoo and Google.