With the rise in laptop thefts, it has been difficult for an owner like you and me to keep track of your lost equipment and retrieve it. What is the best way to keep your machine safe? Kensington lock? But that has to be bought separately and there are all the chances of your precious system getting damaged if the thief tries to pull out the lock. So, do we have an alternative? Yes, we do. Give way to Adeona, an Open Source system created by researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego which can track your lost or stolen laptop.
How does Adeona Work?
So, what are the good things of using this tracking system? It is easy to install and the download and installation is all that you need to do (which is free), you don’t have to rely on a third-party. It is quite safe as only the owner (or someone the owner designates) can use the tracker. So, your privacy is maintained. The best feature about Adeona is that it runs in the background and does its work at random intervals, where it uploads the encrypted data about the location and status of your machine to an off-site storage. It takes lot of steps to keep the data anonymous, private and encrypted.
The working of Adeona is simple. The location checks are as frequent as every 30 minutes. Each time Adeona runs, it collects your machine’s internal IP address from the operating system, the external IP address from a third-party reporting service, the name (if any) of the wireless network to which it is connected, the names of nearby routers as reported by traceroute, and (if available) a photo via iSight camera (which is private too). It stores this information securely in an encrypted local cache. At some random point in the future, report is then uploaded to the distributed storage service OpenDHT network.
With other tracking systems, the main problem area is the privacy part of it and which is everyone’s concern. But Adeona takes care of that problem effectively. The other systems when tracking the location, tracks the location even when the owner uses it, which might result in this information being passed onto a third-party. This can be misused by even service providers not affiliated to the tracking device.
The only problem which users find in Adeona is with the OpenDHT network, which shows up error messages at times. But this issue is also short lived as the makers of Adeona are trying to make it compatible with networks like the Azureus DHT module.
Overall, Adeona is more than just a precautionary measure. It ensures your privacy and also makes the retrieval of a lost machine lot easier. Getting such a device at this price is definitely worth it.
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Hi, My name is Narayanan and i'm your resident blogger. Technology and internet have always fascinated me and that's the reason behind the origin of this blog. Thanks for visiting Tech Spikes :)