I have a new laptop, thinking about running a service that would aid in tracking it if its stolen (ie, broadcasting whois information to a server upon connecting to internet). I realize this is futile in comparison with GPS tracking, but it's worth a shot (and this laptop is not worth the price of GPS tracking). I've done a few google searches, but I wanted to know if anyone on here has experience with this as well and has any recommendations.

12/21/2005 4:29:55 PM

Well, it's IP address is going to change if it's stolen and plugged into another network.

Tracking its MAC address could be more useful though.

12/21/2005 4:31:36 PM

If you had a service that just went out and touched a webserver every hour or so you could have it log IP and whatever else.

Then you would have to get the cops to goto the ISP who owned the IP address to get them to give up the user's info.

12/21/2005 4:38:13 PM

who's the vendor? does it have a cpu that does that?

12/21/2005 4:50:31 PM

http://www.pcphonehome.com/

12/21/2005 5:22:05 PM

yea you want something like that, but dont pay for it.

12/21/2005 5:24:20 PM

yeah i'm aware of a few programs that do this, i guess i'm looking for the best/most popular one

12/21/2005 5:28:46 PM

of course any theif who isn't retarded will wipe the drive as soon as they get it.

12/21/2005 5:29:33 PM

^If they don't sell in some back alley first.

12/21/2005 5:37:21 PM

better security would be painting it bright pink and engraving your name and address into it.

12/21/2005 5:41:08 PM

Quote :

"of course any theif who isn't retarded will wipe the drive as soon as they get it."

Any non-tech savvy shouldn't be able to get in there anyways if its locked down properly. Assuming you have a tech savvy person, you are screwed if it gets stolen. Non-tech won't be able to login and will probably try to sell for cheap ... might plug it in if you are lucky. Techie will dod erase the HD before doing anything (and/or not plug it into the network).

Get your name, driver's license, a permanent email (read non-NCSU) engraved on there ... NCSU will do it for free. Dunno what type of laptop/BIOS it is, but if you want to annoy yourself to death, lock down the hard drive itself through the BIOS. Every reboot you'll have to enter a password or be locked out. Beyond that, check and see how "easy" it is to clear the CMOS.

As far as a program that will do it, PhoneHome looks nice, but it claims to be able to survive a format and go super secret low leve so it can't be detectedl. If you are ok with that, probably worth the $texas.

[Edited on December 21, 2005 at 7:03 PM. Reason : .]

12/21/2005 6:39:06 PM

Quote :

"better security would be painting it bright pink and engraving your name and address into it."

think that should be enough

^ the thief is gonna find out there is a password after he stole the laptop...so..doesnt really help much from getting it stolen

[Edited on December 21, 2005 at 6:45 PM. Reason : .]

12/21/2005 6:42:18 PM

^ his whole thread is talking about how to get it back AFTER it gets stolen

12/21/2005 6:48:20 PM

Quote :

"Dunno what type of laptop/BIOS it is, but if you want to annoy yourself to death, lock down the hard drive itself through the BIOS. Every reboot you'll have to enter a password or be locked out. Beyond that, check and see how "easy" it is to clear the CMOS."

I was thinking about that and locking the bios with the hard drive set as the 1st boot device so it would prevent most people from wiping the drive. Then I remembered. Who cares. The laptop is already stolen and that won't help you get it back.

Here is a crazy idea. How about making it boot up to windows w/o a password. It just straight boots without the login. That would prevent the average guy from looking into wiping your drive. Then set the start location on all your browsers (home location/page) to a URL that hits a server you are running. When someone launches a browser they will accesses the page on your server, you can then log their IP/location/etc. Wipe the log from time to time to get rid of 'legit' accesses.

If you have a spare server.


[Edited on December 22, 2005 at 12:24 PM. Reason : -]

12/22/2005 12:23:02 PM