My home is wired up nicely, courtesy of my older brother, so all 5 of the pc's in the house connect to a server located in the living room. My question is how do I access things like IM convos, sent emails and such (blocking them reading them whatever) from the server. As it is My brother who set it up he knows but wont tell. And there was a small incident a few days ago with him publicizing one of my IM convos and Id like to go in there and stop the server from recording them. The thing is I didnt even know that it was capable of recording something from a separate pc but seeing as how the pc connects to the net through it im not surprised. Can anyone help me with this please.

I doubt the server is responsible. I would suspect that he instead installed something on your pc to spy on you.

Well thats a possibility I highly doubt unless he can gain full access to my pc strictly through he server to install this software. And I do a full sweep of my pc once a week for anything out of the norm, and especially since that event, anything recording activity.

He's probably running a packet sniffer, possibly Ethereal. I do it for fun every once and a while... Except I'm usually the only one on my network!

With physical access to the PC, the door is wide open to what he might be doing that you could not detect. And if he wired up your entire house then you are in the same boat. Rogue net admins are the worst. Sounds like there isn't much you can do from a technical perspective. Human engineering is your answer here.

You mean Wireshark

If he setup your network, he probably has your network password. Change all your passwords and see if it continues. Also, make sure your firewall is enabled. If something that you do not know tries to access or send out, then "Do Not approve it" when it shows up with the firewall alert. If he continues to access your stuff, then he did install something else.

Also, he may have made himself an administrator of your network. Login as "Administrator" and change the password and disable his account or "limit" his account.

Good luck.