[SGVLUG] laptop LoJack

[James Neff]

Claude Felizardo wrote:
>
> Has anyone done anything similar?
> Interesting idea.
>
> claude
>

I thought I read an article a few months back about someone doing this 
with the SETI at Home project.  The guy had SETI at Home loaded on his laptop 
and it was a part of a group.  Someone stole it but plugged it in to the 
Internet, which I'm assuming from reading the article the SETI at Home 
records your public IP address.  He monitored his group's members, and 
when his laptop connected again to SETI at Home he got the IP address and 
notified the authorities.  The article said he did recover his laptop.

I thought about doing this for our laptops here where I work.  Last year 
one of them grew legs and walked out the door.  We are pretty sure it 
was a cleaning person.

In addition to getting laptop security cables, I also signed us up for 
McAfee's Total Protection for Small Businesses.  This is an anti-virus 
system that hourly checks in with McAfee for updates.  When I sign in to 
McAfee to manage the clients it does display the private IP address that 
laptop is using.  I'm sure McAfee records the public address as well, 
but have been meaning to ask them.

--James