1. Jul 15th, 2008

    Open source LoJack for your laptop

    Adeona: A Free, Open Source System for Helping Track and Recover Lost and Stolen Laptops

    Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there’s no need to rely on a single third party. What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

    It’s currently in beta, and easily removed by a knowledged thief, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.  Check it out.  Runs on OS X, Linux and Windows.

    Update: Forgot to mention the original LoJack for laptops, $40/year but worth it for the protection you get. Works nicely on the Mac, I assume just as slick on Windows. Doesn’t make use of the camera, but if you bought one of these models, uses the BIOS to prevent removal.

    (Thanks, Ed)

    Posted by Assaf Filed in general

    1. Jul 30th, 2008

      Ed Hanley

      Can you link into the BIOS based solution that COMPUTRACE has done with these listed laptops as see here http://www.absolute.com/products-bios-enabled-computers.asp

      So the solution can continue after a hard disk reformat and new OS install?

    2. Jul 31st, 2008

      Assaf

      I use it. Reasonable cost, easy setups, runs reliably, didn’t have to test the recovery part yet :-) I’m adding a link in the post.

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