The master of tracking almost
LoJack is definitely focused on home users.
This is evident not only in the easy and simple installation, but also in the
onscreen pop-ups. Designed to be reassuring with reminders that your laptop is
protected – they are no less annoying than any other popups. Luckily, the
program is very good at what it does.
Once installed, you need to create an
account on the LoJack website, enable geo-location tracking, and create a PIN.
A map view shows your device’s location and there are four tabs that divvy up
the planned recovery of your device: Locate, Lock, Delete, and Recover.
While many services rely on Google Maps,
LoJack opts for a map powered by Esri. It looks good but there’s no easy way to
zoom in to get a more specific idea of where your device is, just a big red dot
that, for us, covered quite a large swath of land. Above the map, there’s a
Device Status indicator that should update itself every 24 hours, so you know
that LoJack is still installed.
The Lock part of the process requires you
to input your PIN, enter a message, and then click Lock Device. The locking
process isn’t instant – it took about 20 minutes for us. When it did lock, we
were notified by email. While useful, the locking software isn’t entirely
secure, but there’s also support for Intel hardware locking (if your device
supports it).
The
Esri mapping system that LoJack uses is less nuanced than Google Maps.
Remote deletion of your important data is
run in the Delete section; in the Recover section, the laptop can be marked as
stolen and a Recovery Team is notified and will begin collecting evidence to
hand over to the police.
Indeed, despite its minor weaknesses, we
felt confident that LoJack had us covered
Features
Geo-location, customized lock-out message,
remote lock, remote delete, Theft Recovery Team
Verdict LoJack: 9
Price: $40/year
Website: www.absolute.com/lojackforlaptops
Prey
An open-source protector of your PC
As we saw with FrontDoorSoftware, Prey
proves that just because a product is free doesn’t mean it’s lacking in
features. Indeed, this is a feature-rich and stable open-source program, and
evidence that there are a lot of very talented coders out there.
First impressions of Prey are that it has a
professional and good-looking interface that manages to easily eclipse
FrontDoorSoftware. When launching the software for the first time, you’re
required to set up how Prey sends you reports-either by email and web, or email
only.
The web control panel is excellent, with a
clear and attractive interface. Settings can be easily configured via sliding
toggles, similar to those found on iOS devices. Designating your laptop as
“Lost” will instruct Prey to begin creating reports on its location and send
you email notifications. The frequency of these reports and emails can be
altered easily, which makes the absence of this capability in GadgetTrak all
the more baffling. What GadgetTrak does have over Prey, however, is that GT’s
reports are included in the email notifications, while Prey only offers a
website link.
The reports themselves are very good,
though, with Wi-Fi based location (again pretty accurate), and webcam support.
A very handy feature not found in many other laptop security suites is that
Prey also takes a screenshot of the laptop. It’s a great addition, and if
you’re lucky, the thief could be on a site that will help with identification,
such as Facebook. There’s even more information included in the reports, which
makes Prey easily one of the best laptop security applications we’ve testes.
And it’s free.
Prey
lets you determine the frequency at which the program mails you reports on a
lost or stolen device.
Features
Wi-Fi auto-connect, GPS and Wi-Fi geo-location,
small memory footprint, webcam and screenshot capture, remote data removal,
remote lockdown
Verdict Prey: 9
Price: Free
Website: http://preyproject.com
MyLaptopGPS
Uses IP and not GPS for tracking
Once you’ve get up a MyLaptopGPS account
and installed the software, it will run silently, so thieves will have no idea
that your laptop is being tracked. As with the other products we’ve reviewed
here, you can track your laptop via an Internet browser.
The interface is rather bland and lacks the
friendly style of Prey, but it’s easy to navigate. You can quickly designate
the laptop as stolen, which turns on tracking and a few unique features. You’ll
receive email updates about your laptop, with a reassurance that the
“SafeRecovery Team is pursuing the recovery of this machine”. Also, a window
will pop up on the laptop claiming. “This machine is globally tracked via
permanently embedded GPS.”
While this message lapses into hyperbole,
it could encourage thieves to abandon or even turn over the laptop. There’s
even a phone number to contact. The window sits on top of other windows, which
could also prove annoying for thieves-except that it can be closed easily
through the task manager. Once closed, any thief would know the device is being
tracked and reinstall the OS.
MyLaptopGPS offers a workaround of sorts.
You can identify important files you don’t want to lose and when you flag your
laptop as stolen, MyLaptopGPS uploads those files to a location on the web, emails
you a link, a then deletes them from the laptop.
Though MyLaptopGPS has GPS in the name, it
relies on the much less accurate IP address registration to location laptops.
Where other services use Wi-Fi positioning to get a more accurate location, the
IP address registrant just gave us the city of the IP address which wasn’t even
city the laptop was in.
Once
you’ve identified your laptop as stolen, a message will pop up letting the
thieves know they are being tracked.
Features
IP location tracking, remote data recovery,
remote deletes
Verdict MyLaptopGPS: 8
Price: $10/month
Website: http://mylaptopgps.com
The LaptopLock
Free package offers solid basic for
security
LaptopLock is a free offering that fancy
interface for a simple, no-frills look. Signing up for the service is quick –
you simply need to enter your email address and a password, and you’re taken
straight to the online control panel. From there you can add a computer, giving
it a name for easy reference, and then download the software. During
installation you can choose whether or not to show a splash screen when the
laptop starts up – it’s nice that you’re given the choice.
There are no tracking features with his program,
so ideally it should be installed alongside a free service that does that, such
as Prey. What LaptopLock concentrates on is protecting your data if your laptop
is lost or stolen. It does this in three parts. The first part is file
security: You can select files you want LaptopLock to delete if you flag your
laptop as stolen via the web interface. Choosing the files and folders is very
easy, and you can select to securely delete the data, so that data recovery
tools can’t access it. If you’re not too keen on the scorched-earth policy, you
can choose to encrypt the files instead.
The second part is notification: You can
choose to show a message or play a sound when the missing laptop is in use. The
final part is that you can select a program to launch when the laptop is
reported stolen a good opportunity to run a tracking program, or activate your
webcam and upload the photos it takes. The laptop can also be marked as stolen,
notifying a recovery team that will begin collecting evidence to hand over to the
police.
LaptopLock may appear simple, but with it
you can make your own laptop security solution.
With
an emphasis on data protection, LaptopLock lets you designate files and folders
for deletion or encryption in case of theft.
Features
Remote delete, remote encrypt, show a
message to the user, execute a program, play a sound, visible or hidden from
user
Verdict the LaptopLock: 8
Price: Free
Website: www.thelaptoplock.com
