Clipped from: 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.
Adeona has three main properties:
- Private: Adeona uses state-of-the-art cryptographic mechanisms to ensure that the owner is the only party that can use the system to reveal the locations visited by a device.
- Reliable: Adeona uses a community-based remote storage facility, ensuring retrievability of recent location updates.
- Open source and free: Adeona's software is licensed under GPLv2. While your locations are secret, the tracking system's design is not.
Clipped from: PC World - Business Center: New Service Tracks Missing Laptops for FreeNew Service Tracks Missing Laptops for Free
Here's how it works: A user downloads the free client software onto a laptop. That software then starts anonymously sending encrypted notes about the computer's whereabouts to servers on the Internet. If the laptop ever goes missing, the user downloads another program, enters a username and password, and then picks up this information from the servers, specifically a free storage service that has been around for several years, called OpenDHT.
The Mac version of Adeona even uses a freeware program called isightcapture to take a snapshot of whomever is using the computer.
Adeona doesn't exactly give you the address and phone number of the person who's stolen your laptop, but it does provide the IP (Internet Protocol) address that it last used as well as data on what nearby routers it used to connect to the Internet. Armed with that information, law enforcement could track down the criminal, said Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor at the University of Washington. "Once you actually recover information about your laptop...you probably want to take this information to the police."
Related:
Clipped from: New service tracks missing laptops for free - Network World
On the other hand commercial products such as Absolute Software's Lojack for Laptops have many features that Adeona lacks. For example their software is much harder to remove from the laptop, and these companies are already in the business of working with police to recover stolen laptops. Lojack costs about $40 per year. Another service, Brigadoon's PC PhoneHome goes for a one-time $30 fee.
Adeona: A Free, Open Source System for Helping Track and Recover Lost and Stolen Laptops
PC World - Business Center: New Service Tracks Missing Laptops for Free
New service tracks missing laptops for free - Network World
Slashdot | Open Source Adeona Tracks Lost & Stolen Laptops
