Question : Problem: AOL IM Logging / Emails Saved on Server ???  Legal Matter...

A couple questions:

1.  Does AOL Instant Messenger log any messages between users and/or log the time someone logs in/out of its service either locally (on the computer) or on AOL servers somewhere???  If so, how do I go about getting this information?

2.  Does AOL, Yahoo, etc keep copies of emails that were on their servers for so many months.... ?  If so, how do I go about getting this information?

I have been given a comuter to work on.  A school teacher has been accused of emailing and IM'ing female students sexually offensive things through his home PC.  I have it in my hands at the moment and am trying to recover any possible evidence.  It looks as if he purged all messages from Outlook Express that are dated in the time frame of the accusations.  There are a ton before and a ton after but none during that specific time frame.

If anyone can answer my questions or has any suggestions, I would appreciate it :)

take care,

- troy

Answer : Problem: AOL IM Logging / Emails Saved on Server ???  Legal Matter...

If I were you...I'd be careful.  This sounds like it could be a legal battle and you are getting sucked into it.

First thing I would do...make sure you are not legally responsible for any accidents that you might in-advertently cause on the
system.  Get it in writing.

The second thing I would do...make a backup copy of the disk drive

I would also not do any work on the computer without someone watching over me.  In a court case, it could be very easily said that you
changed the data on the computer.  That's tampering with evidence.

Be careful....