Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Track Down Your Stolen Laptop



Prey is a lightweight application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free.

Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief.

Prey uses a remote activation system which means the program sits silently in your computer until you actually want it to run. If so, it gathers all the information and sends it to your Prey web control panel or directly to your mailbox. The thief will never know his movements are being watched.


Prey Features

Wifi autoconnect: Prey checks if there’s an active internet connection to send the information. If not, it will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available. This gives you a better chance to locate the device.

Lightweight: Yes, this is a feature. Prey is written in bash which means it has virtually no dependencies, only what its different modules need to work. This also means Prey is portable and should run in just about any computer.

Modular architecture: You can add, remove and configure the different parts of Prey as you wish. Prey is composed by modules, each one performing a specific task, so you can have it as you like.

Powerful report system: Get the list of current running programs, the recently modified files, active connections, running uptime, take a screenshot of the running desktop or even a picture of the guy who’s using the computer.

Messaging/alert system: You can alert the user he’s being chased at by sending messages which will appear on screen. You can also trigger alarms to make the message clear not only to him but also to whomever is nearby. Be careful with this one!

For more information and to download Prey visit: http://preyproject.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment