{"id":133,"date":"2009-01-20T21:09:08","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T05:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adrianandgenese.com\/blogger\/?p=133"},"modified":"2012-02-20T11:42:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T19:42:23","slug":"free-lojack-for-laptops-stolen-laptop-tracking-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.adrianandgenese.com\/blogger\/2009\/01\/20\/free-lojack-for-laptops-stolen-laptop-tracking-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Lojack for laptops (stolen laptop tracking service)"},"content":{"rendered":"

***Edit 02\/20\/2012 – The information below is outdated and a new free opensource software is available – Check out www.preyproject.com<\/a> for more information ***<\/p>\n

My friends laptop was recently stolen when someone broke into her bedroom window which was left\u00c2\u00a0ajar during the day. Besides\u00c2\u00a0her sense of security, among the several items they stole was\u00c2\u00a0her laptop. Today, as we were chatting about her being able to borrow one of my old p3 laptops sitting around collecting dust, it dawned on me that a “lojack” type of software must be available for laptop and mobile computers, much like there is a “lojack” tracking service\u00c2\u00a0for automobiles. I did some google searching and came across several options…most of them paid. Such options available include products by Computrace (www.lojackforlaptops.com<\/a>) and Tometa Software (www.tometasoftware.com<\/a>). However, being\u00c2\u00a0as cheap as I am, I did not think shelling out $20-$40 on a subscription was a good deal if I could do this by using a\u00c2\u00a0free but less elegant\u00c2\u00a0method.<\/p>\n

After a\u00c2\u00a0bit more googling, I stumbled upon a piece of software supplied by the University of Washington which was written under the GNU GPL, this basically means that it is free to distribute and modify. Its called Adeona (http:\/\/adeona.cs.washington.edu\/<\/a>) and is available for the Mac OS X (10.4 or 10.5), Windows XP\/Vista, and Linux.\u00c2\u00a0A small unobtrusive program,\u00c2\u00a0Adeona runs as a service and periodically and randomly contacts an OpenDHT server to store the IP address and other associated information\u00c2\u00a0of the laptop\u00c2\u00a0when it is connected to the internet. This information can then be used to track down your computer, and in theory be recovered. Spiffy eh?<\/p>\n

All would be\u00c2\u00a0swell, except for\u00c2\u00a0one (albeit huge)\u00c2\u00a0bug in\u00c2\u00a0its\u00c2\u00a0implementation.\u00c2\u00a0The software is in an early stage of development, and as it is now coded, has an issue connecting to and communicating with\u00c2\u00a0the OpenDHT servers (this is\u00c2\u00a0due to be fixed in the next release). In my quick evaluation, the included recovery tool was not able to grab the necessary information and did not return the useful results necessary to track a stolen laptop. Adeona in theory is one awesome tool, but its implementation has yet to deliver. Overall though,\u00c2\u00a0I feel\u00c2\u00a0this free and tiny alternative to the paid and more full featured software (although much more comprehensive in comparison), is just what is needed in todays era of mobile computing.<\/p>\n

Ill be waiting till Adeona is fixed, and once that is done, will have it installed on all my mobile devices within the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n