Did you ever wondered if anybody else is using your beloved Gmail account? or Is there any way to monitor the account activity? Ok, Google got a solution, not much advanced but fair enough to identify the recent IP addresses used to access the account. Google help page says that the recent activity includes any times that your mail was accessed, using a regular web browser, through a POP client, from a mobile device, etc. The list includes the IP address from which the access was made, as well as the time and date.
So where can I find this? Well open you gmail account and just scroll down to the bottom. Here you can see the text with link in the Details.
Last account activity: x days ago on this computer. Details
Clicking on this Details opens a pop-up windows with the access log.
So how to use this data? See the first column in this list accounts all the access types like Browser, POP etc. So if you are not using a mail client like outlook to access your gmail and the list shows POP, then it means somebody got your login credentials! Same goes to the IP range. The star against some ips indicates that that’s the ip you’re using currently. So check the IPs with no * marks carefully.
The Concurrent session information table will display if your Gmail account is in use from any other computers. So if you have your Home computer turned on and gmail is open, it’ll display as a concurrent session along with the office/school session you’re currently using. If any of the concurrent sessions looks odd (e.g. You don’t have gmail open in other machines), click the Sign out all other sessions link.
If you notice a suspicious account activity ( IPs or Concurrent sessions) change the password as soon as possible and make it a hard one (with alpha-numeric characters & symbols if possible ) . IF any problems in accessing the account try the forgot password option and then use the Contact Google Support.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.
I love this blog and subscribed to your feed ages ago, you never fail to provide good posts, and this one couldn’t have been better timed.